The Taste of Life
by Rinpa
Summary: Kakashi refuses to be in love with his kouhai.  Can Tenzou change his mind?  Sequel to "When We Could Die Tomorrow."  - -  I just couldn't leave things like that between them…  KakaYama
1. Chapter 1

So, as it says in the summary, this is a sequel to When We Could Die Tomorrow. I've tried to write it so new readers can gather pretty much what's going on between Kakashi and Tenzou. Still, I'd suggest you read the previous fic. It's short, anyway.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

….

The Taste of Life

….

"Yamato." Sempai studies my face for a moment, then smiles. "You look terrible."

Sometimes I really have to wonder what goes on in Sempai's head. Is that something you say to someone whose heart you've just broken? He _does_ realize that's what he's done, right? I know I was pretty inebriated when I sprang that kiss on him last night, but at the time, he took it seriously… or to be more specific, he _rejected me_ seriously. Has he convinced himself since then that there was nothing more to that kiss than temporary alcohol induced insanity?

Whatever he really thinks, it's clear enough that he intends to _act_ as though that kiss meant nothing to either of us.

OK, fine. No… not fine, but I'll go along with it anyway. I don't really have a choice. The note I found pushed under my door when I got up telling me to meet him here gave me a few hours of foolish hope that I'd somehow misunderstood him last night, but now I know that was just wishful thinking. By teasing me just like he always does, he's telling me that nothing has changed, or ever will change between us. At least not for the better. There's only so much that Sempai can pretend not see, and if I insist on showing my feelings for him openly, it will eventually drive a wedge between us as friends and colleagues. I won't risk that.

I close my eyes and allow myself one sigh before I slip into the act he's expecting from me. I cross my arms across my chest, tilt my chin up, and glare at him in mock anger. "Of course I look terrible. I'm hung over. What did you call me out here for, Sempai? If it's not important, I'm going home…"

"Tsunade-sama has assigned us a mission. Naruto, Sakura, and Sai are meeting us at noon."

Ah. I thought it was a little weird that Sempai asked me to meet him precisely at 11:55. And I thought it was even weirder that he was actually here, waiting for me, at the appointed time. So he didn't want the kids to be there when we met for the first time after…

…I wonder if he was considering my feelings or his own. Either way, I'm grateful.

But I can't keep thinking about this. I'm supposed to be acting normal, not staring into space. I try to concentrate on what Sempai said. A mission. A mission for _Naruto,_ with both me and Kakashi-sempai along for the ride. The implications finally hit me.

"A lead on Sasuke? And there must be pretty significant danger involved…"

"Possibly on the first count. Definitely on the second."

"Sempai, just what's going…" I'm cut off by the arrival of the rest of Team Kakashi.

"_No way_! Kakashi-sensei's actually here on time!"

"It's a good thing you couldn't convince Sai to take you up on that bet, or you'd be in trouble this month."

"Uwahh… You're right! And I was thinking it would be easy money…"

Sakura shudders. "Believe me. Gambling is _not_ easy money."

"Oi. I'm not Tsunade-baa-chan!"

"But apparently your luck is just as bad. It's probably that necklace she gave you. If I were you, I wouldn't bet while you're wearing it. I mean, to actually _lose_ on a bet that Kakashi will be late… that's a sure sign that something's wrong…"

"Oi!" Sempai interrupts in his own defense, "Even I can be on time when it's important…"

I feel my cheeks heat up in spite of myself. I can't help but be pleased that Sempai considered meeting me to be "important." Naruto and Sakura are less impressed. They're thinking back on all the long waits that have marked meeting_ them_ as _un_important.

"Yamato-taicho."

I glance at Sai. It's the first thing he's said since he arrived, and now I find him studying my face closely. Far too closely. I get a bad feeling about this. After all, there's no one like Sai for saying the wrong thing. Before I can divert his attention to some safe topic, like the mission, he obligingly fulfills my worst expectations.

"Have you been crying?"

There's dead silence for a moment. I can't look at Sempai, but I can feel his tension. Finally, Sakura lets out a little, nervous laugh. "Don't be ridiculous, Sai." She gives him a friendly cuff on the shoulder that makes his knees buckle. "_Of course Yamato-Taicho hasn't been crying!_" It's clear that she agrees with Sai's diagnosis, but I'm grateful to her for at least trying to maintain the pretence.

Sempai clears his throat and engages in diversionary tactics. "I asked you guys to meet here because we've been given a mission. Naruto. Sakura. Before I go further, I want to warn you that it's too early to get your hopes up…"

They know instantly where he's going. Sakura looks like she's seen a ghost. Naruto looks like he's seen the light of God. He's crushing Sempai's shoulders in a white fingered grip as he asks hoarsely, "A lead on Sasuke?"

"Maa, maa." Sempai gently unlatches his student. "Didn't I just tell you not to get your hopes up yet? But there is a possibility that it's Orochimaru's handiwork."

Naruto falls back to a less invasive distance, but his eyes are still burning with a blue fire.

Sakura recovers enough to take her role as the sensible one. "_What's_ Orochimaru's handiwork? And what evidence is there that he's involved?"

"Hmmm… Where to start. Do you two remember the mission a couple years ago with the Kaima?"

Naruto looks blank and scratches his head, but Sakura nods almost immediately. "You're talking about the mission Naruto went on with Anko-sensei? Orochimaru had been conducting research on human modification in order to create under-water ninja, but by the time they found the lab, Orochimaru had lost interest, and the man in charge of the project was acting on his own. Furthermore, that was a long time ago, and even then Orochimaru's trail was cold. I don't see how that incident could help us find Sasuke _now_."

"Ah!" Naruto's fist hits his palm with a smack. "Isaribi-nee-chan!"

Sempai smiles tolerantly. "That's right. Isaribi, the kamikakushi. During the time the lab was active, people from the neighboring islands would disappear, and the residents came to believe they were kamikakushi, spirited away by the gods. That's why I brought this up. We've received reports that something similar is happening again, only on a larger scale. There's a village in the Country of Typhoon where over a hundred people have disappeared, for no apparent reason, in the last few months. People are saying the god of a nearby abandoned shrine is to blame, but the village headman isn't convinced. With just that it seems like a bit of a long shot, but…"

I catch a little disappointment in Naruto's face, but he straightens his back and squares his shoulders. "I don't care if it's a long shot. If there's _any_ chance that this will help me find Sasuke, I'm going!" He plants his feet and crosses his arms.

"You're going whether you want to or not, Baka-Naruto," Sakura chides, but she's smiling. "We've already been assigned the mission!"

"Ah," Naruto laughs and scratches the back of his head. "Right. I guess I've gotten used to having to force Tsunade-baa-chan to let me go on these things…"

I sigh. "Tsudande-sama probably figured she'd save herself some pain and just assign the mission to you from the start."

Sempai chuckles, and the sound sends shivers running up and down my spine. "Something like that, yeah." I've known Sempai for a long time. I've gotten to know all of Sempai's _many_ quirks and foibles. I've detected more than one fatal flaw. I've suffered through years of disappointed hopes. So how is it, I'd like to know, that Sempai can still make me feel like this? It's not bloody _fair_!

But business before misery. "I'm not familiar with the Country of Typhoon. Do you have a map?" I force myself to look Sempai in the face, and appreciate for once that there's not much face to see. It's easier that way.

Sempai nods, fishes a scroll out of his vest, and hands it over. I unfurl the first section and scan the roughly inked map. The country of Typhoon is an archipelago strung out between the peninsula projecting from the Southeastern corner of the Fire Country and the islands of the Water Country.

Sakura and Sai step closer, and I angle the map for them to see.

"Why was this request made to Konoha rather than Kiri?" Sakura asks for all of us.

Sempai's eye gleams. "Ahhhh. Naruto interrupted me before I got to the best part. The request was brought to us, because around the time people began disappearing, a stranger was seen who matched the description of one of Konoha's nukenin…" He pauses for dramatic effect. Naruto and Sakura are leaning forward in anticipation. So am I, I realize, as Sempai's sardonic eye flicks towards me for an instant. I straighten up toot suite. Damn the man.

Finally, he decides he's left us in suspense long enough.

"_Yakushi Kabuto_."

….

And the adventure begins!

I'd really like your input, so please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

….

The Taste of Life

….

We gather outside the Konoha gates at seven the next morning. Or to be more precise, four out of five of us gather at seven. Sempai's amazing punctuality of yesterday was apparently a one-time thing. We're forced to wait around, twiddling our thumbs, as the sun rises higher and the cool mists of morning are slowly burned away. Naruto paces back and forth the whole entire time. Ever since Kakashi dropped the Kabuto bomb shell, Naruto has been raring to go. No amount of reasoning on Sempai's side—that there could be any number of white haired young males with glasses, completely unrelated to Orochimaru and Sasuke, running around—could bank the fire of his enthusiasm. Between the two of us, Sakura and I managed to stop him from tearing off the moment he heard the news, but it was a close thing. Now I'm beginning to worry that, if Sempai doesn't get his ass out here soon, we might have a repeat performance. Not that I can blame the kid. I'm about ready to leave Sempai behind, myself.

Just as this thought runs through my mind (albeit for the tenth time, so there's not MUCH of a coincidence, here), a familiar shadow falls across the ground at my feet. I stare down at it, and wish fervently that I'd acted on the impulse to leave one of the previous nine times. It's too late now. Sempai is here, and we'll be stuck together for who knows how long. Talk about repeat performances! I'll be spending practically every moment of every day pretending that nothing's happened, nothing's wrong, and I'm not hopelessly in love. And it's hard to imagine, from the way my pulse is racing just at the sight of the spiky shadow Sempai's head is casting in the dirt, that pretending will get any easier. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Before I know it, I'm half way through a long sigh. Sempai's shadow suddenly goes very still, and I know even that small expression of what I'm feeling was a mistake. Time to fix it. I get up from my seat on my luggage, swing my arms a few times, and stretch; the absolute _picture_ of nonchalance.

"It's past nine o'clock, sempai," I say conversationally.

"Ah. You see, the old lady next door tripped over her cat and broke her hip. I had to take her to the hospital. Then the pit bull from down the street got loose and…"

I'm already settling my pack on my shoulders and walking off. "Hai, hai. Whatever you say, Sempai. Since you're finally here, let's just go. Naruto's about to lose patience and go haring off on his own, and I'd really rather not waste another couple of hours trying to track him down."

Before Sempai can respond, the boy in question catches sight of him and descends like a fury. Sakura isn't far behind. I leave Sempai to his fate and start down the route we planned out yesterday. Sai hovers indecisively between the two groups for a moment, then jogs after me. He stops just a pace behind and follows silently at my elbow… very silently, very persistently, and very exactly one pace behind, even when I try and move away to a slightly less claustrophobic distance. Beginning to get annoyed, I shoot him a dirty look. I'm surprised to find him hastily shifting _his_ eyes away from _me_. I stare down at him in consternation. What new trouble is brewing here? Sai's eyes flick furtively in my direction again, and as they are once again averted, a pale blush grows in the dead white of his cheeks. I stop stock still.

Now, if it were anyone but Sai, I'd start worrying right about now that the kid was growing a crush on me. Therefore, that can't be it. It will be something completely unexpected. "Sai," I say, a little sternly, "If there's something you have to say, then please say it."

Sai considers for a moment, then lifts his head. The flush is gone, and the expression is just as opaque as ever. "Yamato-taichou, is there something…" He searches for the unfamiliar phrase. "…'going on'… between you and Kakashi-sempai?"

I slap my palm to my face, in some instinctual attempt, I suppose, to drown out the psychological blow with a physical one. Sempai is not here right now, I realize, and I let out a double lungful of exasperation as well. How can the kid be so discerning, and yet so dense?

"There's nothing 'going on' between Sempai and me," I grit.

Sai cocks his head. "But Yamato-taicho, you've been looking somewhat ill the last couple of days, particularly in the presence of Kakashi-sempai…"

I force myself to meet Sai's gaze and speak calmly. "…Thank you, Sai, for your concern, but it's just your imagination. I'm _fine_. With or without Sempai."

"Oh," he says. For a moment he continues to stare blankly at me. Then his features are drawn suddenly into a disconcerting smile. "I understand."

He starts down the path again, and after a moment's hesitation, I do, too. _What,_ exactly, Sai understands, I don't even want to guess, but at least he's not hovering at my elbow anymore.

…

Hmmm. Yes. I know it's short. Forgive me? Next chap is longer.

PS. Don't worry. Sai really is NOT in love with Yamato. He's just, as usual, worrying about his friends in a very inappropriate manner.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

….

The Taste of Life

….

The first day's journey was both a lot better and a lot worse than I'd anticipated. We couldn't have had much of a head start on Sempai, Naruto, and Sakura, but when Sai and I stopped to set up camp for the evening, they still hadn't caught up to us. They arrived in the clearing so soon after we did, however, that it was eminently clear that they could have caught up at any time… had Sempai wished it.

I should be happy. It meant that I didn't have to spend the day striving to keep up the pretence of normality.

I'm not happy, though.

Sempai is clearly keeping his distance from me, and it _hurts_. I can't help wondering. Is it too late? Have I permanently ruined our relationship… even such as it was? I've been dreading the hardship of trying to go back to the way things were before I… kissed him, but now it's beginning to look like that's not even an option. Isn't there anything I can do besides silently watch him pull away?

I catch his eye for a moment, and everything freezes. Then he smiles his nothing-meaning smile, shuffles back a step, and half turns. "You've got shelter covered, right Yamato? Guess, I'll go get a few fish for our dinner," he drawls, and escapes.

The rest of us are left to divvy up the remaining tasks. It looks like rain tonight, so I sprout us a little cabin. Naruto and Sai get the cook fire going. Before anyone can head her off, Sakura offers her services as chef. None of us have the courage to protest, and she sets out, humming cheerfully, to forage for the ingredients of a nutritious, well-balanced, and undoubtedly inedible meal.

I set aside worries over Sempai in the face of this greater misfortune, and call an emergency meeting. Naruto, Sai, and I crouch around the fire. We're all in agreement that eating whatever Sakura cooks up is out of the question. Sai is turning a sickly grey-ish green just at the thought. The problem is, no one has any idea how we can stop her without incurring casualties.

Finally, we give up on the idea of preventing the meal from being made. We'll just have to stage some kind of distraction, during which time we can surreptitiously dispose of our portions. That means we'll have nothing for dinner but Sempai's fish. I hope he's actually fishing, and not just perched in a tree, somewhere, reading his damn book. Well…, that's just a risk we'll have to take. We bend closer over the fire and start putting together diversionary tactics. We toss around several possible plans. The best one involves a troop of Naruto clones disguised as monkeys. This is Sai's suggestion, and the smile he wears while making it suggests that he thinks Naruto is singularly well suited for the roll. Fortunately, the jibe goes over Naruto's head, and he agrees without a fuss. With any luck, the rampaging troop of "monkeys" will manage to knock the pot over in the fray. If Naruto can't get close to it, he'll have to draw Sakura away from camp so we can get rid of the stuff ourselves. He tells me that one of the monkeys giving her a slap on the ass should do the trick. I chew the side of my cheek, thinking. I really shouldn't be countenancing that kind of behavior, but well… the ends justify the means…

The sound of humming alerts us to Sakura's return, and we scatter. She spreads out the results of her foraging. Some of it I recognize as wild herbs, roots, and vegetables, but there is also an astonishing selection of suspicious looking fungi, and even a few objects I can't classify. I watch in fascinated horror as Sakura proceeds to chop, slice, and grind the whole lot of it into our single camping pot. There's not much space left over, so she goes light on the water. From the effort she has to put into stirring the contents, it must be getting pretty thick.

And then she gets up and walks away. All of us have been pretending to be absorbed in our own business, but now everyone's staring at her openly. She stops at the edge of the clearing and throws a smile over her shoulder. "I came across a great harvest of medicinal herbs in the forest. I'm going to go gather some, so could you guys keep an eye on the stew for me? Don't let it boil over, now! If I'm not back in twenty minutes, go ahead and eat without me." So saying, she disappears into the underbrush. At first we can only stare after her. Then we exchange glances and turn as one to look at the burbling cauldron.

A trap?

A stroke of unbelievable luck?

Which?

No one wants to find out.

Twenty minutes finds the cauldron still on the fire. I'm keeping a wary eye on it from inside the door of the shelter. I'm just about to go out and finally dispose of the fearful brew, when movement at the edge of the clearing catches my eye. Damn. We've left it too long. But no, it's not Sakura, it's Sempai. With fish, believe it or not!

I breathe a sigh of relief. I can't say I'm happy to see him, but at least he's not Sakura, and at least he's brought something edible.

As I'm busy thinking this, Sempai is walking across the clearing towards the fire. Gradually it dawns on me that he's acting a kind of odd. He looks tired and preoccupied. He tosses the bundle of fish to the ground next to the fire, plops down on a convenient rock, and rubs his hands through his hair. After resting with bent head for a moment, he reaches for a bowl and absently ladles "stew" into it. The viscous black goop clings to the ladle before falling reluctantly into the bowl with a moist splat, but Sempai seems not to notice anything amiss. He pulls down his mask, scoops up a spoonful of gunk, and brings it to his mouth.

This is no time for silly fears of Sakura and Sempai, I realize. Prompt action is required. I burst out of the cabin. "Wait a moment, Sempai!" I shout, dashing over to him. He looks up at me, spoon hovering before slightly parted lips. He seems to be listening, and I continue. "Sempai, that's Sakura's…" I stop, horrified, as Sempai, eye still glued to my face, slips the spoon into his mouth. For a beat, nothing happens. Then he turns green and gags.

He doubles over and spits the noxious mouthful onto the ground. He retches reflexively a few more times before wiping his mouth on his arm. "What the hell _was_ that crap?" he groans.

I sigh, un-strap my water bottle from my hip, and hand it to him. "That's why I told you to _wait_, Sempai."

"Oh. Is that what you said…" he mutters indistinctly around the mouth of the bottle.

I don't know how he could have failed to hear me from so close, but I let it pass. I've just realized that, for the moment at least, we're talking easily, like friends again. Relief wells up inside me. I'm never letting him slip away from me again, not even if that means I can never really get close to him, either.

…

There's no one in sight when I finally wander back into camp. Good. I totter over to the abandoned fire, deposit my contribution to dinner, and sink onto the nearest rock.

What a headache.

Maa… I'm used to being saddled with nasty, insoluble problems… just not by _Tenzou_, of all people. Not _Tenzou_, who may grumble and fret, but can always be counted on to do whatever I ask, no matter how outrageous the request. Not _Tenzou_, who's always so attentive to what I'm thinking and feeling.

Now, why didn't I see it before; how odd that is. I'm impressed by how blind I've managed to be.

I've been staring blankly into the fire, and it finally registers that there's a pot of something cooking there. I ask myself whether I feel hungry. Not really, but it's foolish to sit here mulling over depressing things on an empty stomach, so I pick up a bowl and ladle out some of the contents. I'm about to take a bite when I hear Tenzou's voice. I look up reluctantly, and see him running towards me, shouting something.

Ah. I really wish he hadn't kissed me.

I can't focus on what he's trying to tell me. Instead, my eye locks onto his long, supple lips. It's absurd. His kiss was hardly one of the better ones I've had. Not to put too fine a point on it, but he smelled and tasted vile; a bad mix of alcohol and vomit.

So… it's beyond me why I should be finding it so hard not to stare at Tenzou's lips, or why seeing them should give me the same heady feeling as a good, heart-thumping scene in Ichya-ichya Tactics.

There's no denying it, though. The way I look at Tenzou has changed.

Tenzou is standing before me now. He's opening his mouth to say something more, but I'm still finding it impossible to concentrate on his words. This time it's the damn ears. Does he know how cute they are, peeking out on either side of his face plate like that? Hm. Of course not. If he did, he'd cover them up. I realize that the spoon is still hovering in front of my mouth. Maybe a little food will clear my head.

It does, in a way. The god-awful taste drives away all thought. The desire to preserve my dignity is quickly shouted down by the need to get this shit out of my mouth, and I spit it out. A slimy film of the stuff still coats my tongue and the back of my throat and makes me gag.

"What the hell _was_ that crap." I'd assumed it was our dinner, but clearly I was wrong.

Tenzou sighs, and hands over his water bottle. He's exasperated with me. At the same time as he's taking care of me, sacrificing his own water bottle even though I've got one too, he's chiding me like a child he can't let out of his sight. I feel a stab of nostalgia and realize that for the first time since that night, he's not pretending. This is pure Tenzou, not Tenzou trying to act like himself. The ice has been broken. Tenzou notices it, too. I watch apprehensively as the self-conscious look returns to his face, but something really has changed for him. I've barely had a chance to worry when he shakes it off, flashes a lopsided smile, and calmly enters into an explanation of the deadly substance lurking in our cooking pot.

This is good. His awkwardness was painful to watch. I'm glad he's gotten over it. Now the only question is; can _I_.

…..

-_- Writing Kakashi is hard… How'd I do? Too OOC?


	4. Chapter 4

To avoid confusion about who's narrating, I'm just going to start each section with the name of the narrator.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Tenzou_

…

It starts pouring that night, and continues all through the next day's march. Somehow, Sempai's back looks incredibly sad through the sheeting rain. But then, we're all feeling pretty low. We're all wet, cold, and hungry. The day passes in sullen silence, broken occasionally by Sai's attempts at conversation. He seems oblivious to the weather, but the rest of us are too out-of-sorts to answer him. Towards late afternoon, Naruto adds to the liveliness of the group by asking "Are we there yet?" every half-hour or so. The questions are followed by negatives of increasing brevity from Sempai:

"Not yet, Naruto. We still have another fifteen kilometers to go."

"Not yet. 10 km."

"No."

*sigh*

Finally, Sakura's patience wears out, and she decks the kid, sending him face forward into the mud. He's much quieter after that.

It's already past dark when the ground begins to rise and the trees thin out. Soon we're out of the forest entirely, climbing a steep ridge. Sempai quickens our pace.

"Are we…" Naruto starts. He catches himself in time and shoots a guilty look at Sakura.

Sempai takes pity on the boy and answers his unfinished question. "Almost there, Naruto. Just over this hill."

A few minutes later we reach the crest of the ridge, and a sudden gust of wind welcomes us with the salty scent of the sea. We can smell it, but in the pitch black of a rainy night, we can't really see it. It's just a great expense of darkness stretching endlessly out beyond the lesser darkness of beach. We're not interested in the sea anyway, though. It's the little port town—and the prospect of a nice hot dinner and a cozy room in an inn—that monopolizes our thoughts. We start down the ridge towards the cluster of lighted buildings. We're in such a hurry that we more than half skate down the slope, feet slithering and slipping over wet stone, grass, and mud. We make it down without serious mishap, however, and wander through rows of modest cabins before reaching the town square. We don't have to make a decision about where to stay. A brief glance around tells us that there's only one inn. It seems to double as the only restaurant, too.

"…I hope they're not booked up."

Sempai turns to look at me and smiles. "What are you talking about, Tenzou? If this inn's full, you can just grow us one of our own. I'm sure the town's folk will thank you for it."

I grimace. I've been running for ten hours in a cold rain, and I'm _tired_. I don't think Sempai properly appreciates the effort that goes into growing a house. I stalk towards the inn. "You'd better hope it doesn't come to that, Sempai, because the best I could manage right now is a leaky shack. And it's _Yamato_." The kids aren't close enough to hear; I just feel like griping about something.

"Nonsense, Tenzou," is the mild reply. "I'm sure you'd grow us I magnificent shack."

Not deigning to respond, I push open the door and step in out of the rain.

I pause, dripping on the packed earth floor of the foyer. Standing guard over the step up to the wooden hall way at the end of the little room, is the reception desk. It's empty. I step farther in.

"…Excuse me?" There's no response.

Sempai comes up behind me. "Hm. Lively."

"Sempai!" I shoot him a disapproving look. He's being particularly facetious today. I turn to investigate the desk. There's a bell there, along with a scrawled message inviting the reader to "ring if you need something." I press the little button, and a shrill "brrrrriiiiiiiiing!" echoes through the room. It has no more effect than my call, however.

Sakura and Sai have already straggled in, and now Naruto joins the crowd. He takes one look at the empty reception desk, cups his hands around his mouth and shouts at the top of his lungs. "OWNER! HEY OWNER! ANYONE HOME? HEY O…" I hastily clap a hand over the boy's mouth. His atrocious rudeness have succeeded in smoking someone out, though. Hurried footsteps can be heard in the hall, and a tired looking woman appears, rubbing her hands dry on an apron. She looks our party over with anxious surprise.

"Sorry for being so loud, Madam," I apologize, "We didn't mean to alarm you."

A frowns clouds the woman's face. "No, no. On the contrary, I'm terribly sorry you've been kept waiting!" She bobs a few apologetic bows. "I don't know where that husband of mine can've got to! He's supposed to be watching the desk! I suppose he thought there wouldn't be any guests, so I'd never know the difference... If you don't mind my saying so, it's a little unusual for us to have guests when there're no ships in port. We don't get much traffic from inland."

"Well then. Can we take that to mean that there won't be a problem putting our party up for the night?" Sempai steps a little to one side so the inn-keeper can see the full extent of his little flock.

I had come to the same comforting conclusion myself, but the inn-keeper is looking more distressed than ever, and has begun to wring her hands. "Well, you see, the truth is, we've got a bit of an unusual situation here. Last week a ship got caught in a storm while attempting the voyage to the Land of Typhoon. She ran aground a little ways south of here, and we're putting the crew up while they make repairs. So… I'm terribly sorry, but we're full to bursting right now."

"…Ah. Well then." Sempai slants an amused look at me, and raises an eyebrow.

I'm not quite ready to give up, though. "Even just a dry corner would be welcome…"

The inn-keeper looks almost as miserable for us as we could be for ourselves. "I'm sorry, but even the floor space is spoken for already."

It looks as though my fate is sealed, but if I'm going to have to grow a house, I'd rather it wasn't on an empty stomach. "Then before we go, would it at least be possible to get a meal?"

She brightens slightly. "Oh, certainly! I'm afraid the men didn't leave so much as a scrap from dinner, but if you can wait a little while, I'll have a nice hot meal for you."

"Um…" Sakura is gazing at the woman with a commiserating expression. "We don't want to cause too much trouble. You must have had your hands full, cooking for all those sailors. I'd be glad to help in the kitchen, if that would make things easier on you."

My heavenly image of fatty, golden broth and a steaming bowl of white rice is immediately dashed.

"…Sakura…" Sempai says cautiously, laying a restraining hand on his student's shoulder. Apparently, he's unable to think of any (inoffensive) reason that she shouldn't help out, because the pause continues to stretch out indefinitely. Finally, he just turns to the inn-keeper in mute appeal.

"Thank you, dear, but the ship's cook has been helping me out. I'll actually be glad to have the cooking to myself again. What I _could_ use is a hand with the dishes, if you would be so kind. I was actually in the middle of the washing up when I heard your call," she flashes a small, polite smile at Naruto. "You wouldn't believe what a mountain of dishes a whole crew of sailors can make."

Sakura's satisfied, and the rest of us can breathe again.

We're not given long to savor our escape, however.

"Sai, Naruto," Sakura barks, "You two come and help out, too."

I wonder how long it's going to be before she grows up and starts talking to _me_ like that? Or even _Sempai_…

"Yamato-taichou, Kakashi-sensei." I jump. Well, she's not talking to us in _quite_ the same way. She's smiling and her tone is polite, but it's clear all the same that she means business. "Won't you lend us a hand too? I'm sure it would be appreciated."

She might have a point, really. The inn-keeper _is_ looking awfully frazzled. Maybe we should…

A hand closes over my shoulder and holds me back. "Sorry, Sakura. Yamato and I have to do something about shelter for the night, so I'm afraid you'll have to make do without us."

Sakura frowns a little, but nods her acquiescence. The frazzled woman makes one final bow, and leads her three assistants off to the kitchen.

I glower reproachfully over my shoulder at Sempai as he steers me back out into the rain. "You're just using this as an excuse not to do dishes, aren't you Sempai," I grumble. "And _I'm_ the one who's going to be doing any work!"

"You know me so well, Tenzou."

I squelch to a halt in the middle of the muddy square. There's nothing in the words themselves. They're just the standard retort; empty banter. What's caught my attention is the way he said them. In the little Odd Couple comedy we've been acting out, that line should have been said with insouciance, not… what, melancholy? _Whistfulness?_ I turn around and peer at Sempai, trying to read his face. That's hard enough to do under normal conditions, seeing as he only gives you about three square inches of face to work with, but through the dark and the rain I can barely make out anything at all.

Sempai shifts. The shock of silver hair, the only thing still clearly visible in the dark, tilts to one side. "This… is not really the place I would have chosen…"

"_E-eh_?" I can't believe my ears. Chosen for _what? _It _can't_ be that Sempai, the master of evasion, is about to say something about what's been going on…

"I was thinking the empty lot over there."

"…eh?"

"I really don't think the town wants a building in the middle of their central square, Tenzou."

Ahhh yes. The shack. What was I thinking?

I stump over to the indicated lot and weave my hand signs. I should build Sempai a leaky shack as threatened, but of course I do no such thing. My professional pride won't allow it. The building is perfectly water-tight, and roomy enough to hold twice our little party. It's raised on thick pillars to keep us up out of the wet, and the broad flight of steps leading up to the entrance is sheltered by a sweeping extension of the elegant hip-gabled roof. Sempai is already climbing up to the door (without offering me a word either of praise or of thanks, of course). When he enters, he'll even find the place equipped with an earth-lined pit in the center, so that we can have a fire to keep us warm tonight.

Sempai pauses in the door, and looks back down at me. "Alright there, Tenzou?"

"I'm… _fine!_" I wheeze unconvincingly, bent over with my hands braced on my knees. This is why I wanted to do this after dinner.

Sempai waits until I start to climb up after him, and then disappears inside. When I come through the door, he's making a fire in the hearth. I lean my shoulder against the edge of the door and watch. His hands flash through a series of signs, and he breathes flame into the branches I've thoughtfully supplied. He stretches his hands out to the crackling fire, and for a while, he just crouches there in silence. Finally, he looks over at me.

"Come on in and warm up, Tenzou." _He's_ inviting_ me_ into the cabin _I_ just made. I sigh. Leaving my muddy shoes next to Sempai's, I pad over to the hearth. I hunker down opposite him, draw my cloak closer around me, and stare morosely into the fire. For a moment, back there, I thought I'd noticed a difference in Sempai. I thought maybe something would change. I was obviously mistaken, though. This is still the same old Sempai.

….

Stopping it here, for now. Poor Tenzou will have to wait a few more days before he finally gets his dinner…


	5. Chapter 5

Yo! Terribly sorry I haven't updated this in such a long time. Got side tracked on another fic. Anyway, here's the next bit. Thanks to HistoryHound for reading over the first draft and giving me advice on it. If it still sucks, though, it's my fault, not hers. XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Kakashi_

….

Within moments of settling down across the fire from me, Tenzou starts to nod-off. I worry for a moment that he'll fall forward into the flames, but through either luck or a last sliver of consciousness, he manages to slump to the side instead. There's a dull clunk as his face plate strikes the wooden floor. He doesn't look all that comfortable. I leave my side of the fire, and sink into a crouch by his head.

"Ooooi, Tenzou…" I call, softly.

Not a twitch. He's completely asleep. Looks like I've been too hard on him, driving him to make this place after a hard day's run with no rest or food between. I knew he wouldn't say no, even if he was too tired, and I knew his pride wouldn't allow him to just throw up a simple lean-to. Of course if he did something at all, he'd have to do it right, down to the last little artistic detail.

No. On the whole, I'd say my behavior towards Tenzou today wasn't much of a success. I was trying to behave normally, which meant liberal amounts of teasing, but I knew even at the time I was overdoing it. Somehow, though, I couldn't stop.

It's safer, isn't it. Teasing him too much—making myself too obnoxious—is safer than being too gentle. The last thing I want to do is encourage him. I don't want anything I do to make him think I might be changing my mind. But… I don't want to actually _torture _the poor man.

I examine Tenzou's face.

Alright, maybe I want to torture him just a little. It's a little annoying, all of this; a complication I didn't ask for, and certainly don't want. But—I'm fully aware of how absurd I'm being—what's actually rubbing me the wrong way now, is that Tenzou seems to be giving up on me _too easily_. Really. Shouldn't he be struggling a bit more? Sure, the faster everything returns to normal, the better, but to have him screw with my head and then be the first to recover… now that's bit much, isn't it.

Tenzou shifts uncomfortably. He's scowling even in his sleep; brow furrowed, and lips pressed together in a disapproving line.

I have to smile at my own foolishness.

This is Tenzou. Of course he had no intention of screwing with my head. He's the innocent victim, here. _I _rejected _him_. If he's not the only one hurting, it's not _his_ fault.

The cabin door rasps open, and I look up. Sai is standing in the opening, one hand still resting on the edge of the panel, a tray with promising array of crockery skillfully balanced on the other arm. The strange thing is, it doesn't look like he means to come in. He's just standing in the doorway, still as a statue, staring me down with flat, black eyes.

Ah. He's moving. Sort of. His eyes slide slowly down to Tenzou, and then back up to me. And now he's back to stony stillness. I return his stare, wondering if this is some kind of contest. The one to blink first loses? Do I get something if I win?

The odd moment is interrupted by impatient noises at Sai's back.

"What gives, man? Hurry up and let me through! These dishes are _heavy_!"

"NARUTO! Don't just stand there like an idiot!"

"S-Sakura-chan! It's not me! Sai's blocking the door…"

"Mou! Can we just hurry up and go in? My hair's getting wet! If it get's frizzy…"

Suddenly, Sai's not standing in the doorway anymore. He's laying his tray down by the fire with the practiced grace of a butler. I've gotta hand it to the kid. I've never seen someone skedaddle with such unruffled dignity.

Naruto stumbles in a moment later, with Sakura close on his heels, worriedly feeling the top of her head. Another boisterous minute, and all the food is spread out around the fire. There's an enthusiastic "Itadakimasu!" from Naruto, and people start to tuck in. I reach down and give Tenzou's shoulder a little shake.

"Oi. Time to wake up."

He starts, rolls over on his back, and blinks up at me blearily. He frowns. "Sempai?"

I have to smile at the groggy look on his face. "Food's here."

Tenzou props himself on his elbows and takes in the sight of the three kids chowing down. He sits up the rest of the way, yawns, and rubs his face. "When did I fall asleep…?"

"Never mind that. If you don't hurry, there won't be anything left for you to eat, you know."

Tenzou seems to have woken up enough to appreciate the truth of this, and hastily grabs a bowl of soup, another of rice, and rescues a few strips from a platter of rapidly disappearing meat. Satisfied, I follow suite (though sadly I've missed my chance at the meat), and retreat to a quiet corner.

It's an endearing sight, really; the three kids and my kouhai clustered around the warm glow of the fire. Endearing, and entertaining. Naruto is wolfing down food with wild abandon. Sakura, though clearly ravenous herself, is trying to reign herself in to a more lady-like pace. As usual, she and Naruto have fallen into a friendly bout of bickering. She's accusing him of taking the last piece of meat, and trying to warn him that he'll make himself sick, gorging the way he is. He's protesting that he has no idea what happened to the meat, and he can take care of his stomach just fine, thanks. Sai, though at any given moment seeming to eat with calm, measured movements, has managed to put away an astonishing amount of food. Including that last piece of meat.

And Tenzou… Content with the food he took at first, he's eating at a leisurely pace and watching the antics of the others with a tolerant smile.

He was a kid around that age when I first met him, wasn't he. But… now that I see him with Naruto, Sakura, and Sai… I realize I can't remember him ever acting like this… like a normal kid. He was always a quiet one, never much for joining in the group nonsense. Even less so than Sai, maybe, who seems plenty "different" on the surface, but still seems to have inserted himself into the bond between the other two kids… no small accomplishment, what with what those two have gone through together. Tenzou was just the opposite. He always looked like he was getting along easily with everyone. He could say the right thing at the right time, and he always had a sense of humor, but… was he ever really close with anyone? Not that I can think of.

I suppose the person he was closest to… would have to be _me_.

I shake my head and dig into my rice. That's ridiculous. Even supposing it was true back then, I barely saw Tenzou in the years after I left ANBU. There's bound to be a lot more to Tenzou's life now that I know nothing about. No point in feeling guilty… or gratified.

Finished eating, I get up to add my empty dishes to the ones stacked around the fire.

Everyone else seems to be done eating, too. Sakura is starting to gather the empty dishes onto the trays the kids used to bring out the meal. "I guess we should take these back, now. Naruto, give me a hand?"

Naruto, is lying back and rubbing his distended stomach. He groans. "Can't move. Ate too much…"

She sighs, straightens up, and puts her hands on her hips. "I _told_ you you were eating too much, and now look at you…"

"Yeah, yeah, next time I'll listen to the doctor's orders, but… say, Kakashi-sensei… Since we brought the food in, doncha think it's only fair for you and Yamato-taichou take it back?"

Sakura turns to me, too, and smiles apologetically. "Sorry, Sensei, but could you? Naruto's done for, and I'd better stay here and mix up some stomach medicine for him."

Now that I think about it, I have some business I want to take care of at the inn, anyway. "How 'bout it, Yamato? Shall we go?" I look around for him. He's over in the corner of the room, halfway through laying out his blanket roll.

He turns slowly, and looks back at me with the face of an un-dead creature. "Did you say something, Sempai…?" he drones.

"…Ah… no. Forget it, Yamato." It would have been more convenient to have him come along with me, but… I think I'd better let him sleep. If things work out the way I hope they will, I'll need him to be in good shape for tomorrow.

As I turn back to the fire, I catch Sai watching me again. Again, his eyes pan from me to Tenzou and back, and then we're caught in another staring contest.

Suddenly, and for no discernable reason, he smiles.

"I'll help you bring in the dishes, Kakashi-sensei." Sai stoops and picks up one of the trays. Smile still fixed in place, he asks, "Ready?"

Somewhat bemused, I gather the remaining dishes, and follow Sai to the door. Out of all the members of my team, he's the one I know least about. Frankly, I've got no clue what he's up to, or what all the funny looks are about, but if he wants to help carry the dishes, then I'm certainly not going to object.

…..

Continuing soon, I hope.


	6. Chapter 6

Lol. OK, a whole section on deleted scenes might be too much, but if anyone read HistoryHound's review and wants to know where Sleeping Beauty comes into things, the original lines stand thus:

I reach down and give Tenzou's shoulder a little shake.

"Oi. Wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

He starts, rolls over on his back, and blinks up at me blearily. He frowns. "Sempai?"

Some Sleeping Beauty. "Food's here."

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Kakashi_

…

Once we get past the inn's foyer, I have to stop. I've just realized that I have no idea where I'm going. I look back at Sai. "So… where's the kitchen?"

Sai steps around me and leads the way. He's been silent since we left Tenzou's cabin, so it's something of a surprise when he throws a smile over his shoulder, and says "Ah, Kakashi-sensei, I think I should say 'thank you.'"

"… Oh?" Thank you for what, I wonder? I don't remember doing anything for Sai that should require thanks. I don't remember doing anything at all for Sai. Frankly, he's barely been on my radar. And what does he mean he "thinks" he should say thank you?

"Yamato-taichou seems quite worn out this evening."

"Mm." And how did Tenzou come into this? Changing the subject, or is Tenzou being tired somehow connected with whatever Sai's thanking me for? I don't see the link. Maybe Tenzou should thank me for letting him sleep, but how does that benefit Sai? Must be something else.

I'm actually getting a little curious. "Say, Sai. When you say you think you should thank me…" Before I can finish my sentence, Sai makes a sudden left and disappears through an opening in the bank of shoji doors. I stick my head in after, and find that we've arrived at the kitchen. Sai's already at the end of the room, handing off his tray of dishes to the inn-keeper. This is a traditional kitchen area; little more than an enclosed stretch of packed dirt at the back of the inn proper. I see a spare pair of sandals, and step down into them so I can hand off my load of dishes, as well. There's not much in the way of appliances, here. Looking at the stacks of dirty of bowls and the basin of soapy water, I remember the point Sakura made earlier of helping the inn-keeper out. It occurs to me that we might be expected to proffer our services now, too.

"Ah… if you could use a hand with the dishes…" I don't see how I can avoid the offer, but I'm relieved when it's declined. I've never been a big fan of household chores…

Anyway, I've got something else I want to take care of. "I was thinking that I wouldn't mind a chat with some of the other folks staying here. Particularly the captain of the ship that ran aground. Know where I might be able to find him?"

"He'll be in the tavern." The inn-keeper's mouth tightens. "My husband, too, no doubt." I laugh uncomfortably, and she flashes me a self-conscious smile. "Forgive me. That was uncalled for. Here." She wipes her hands on a dish towel, and moves to one of end of the kitchen. She slides open one of the doors, and steps aside. Outside, a stone path cuts across a neat little kitchen garden to the other wing of the inn. Despite the chill, rainy night, a few of the storm doors are cracked open, and light shines through the shoji panels inside. We can hear the rumble of conversation, too, swelling into raucous laughter before subsiding again. "That's the tavern over there. I'm afraid this path takes you in the back way, but it's quicker than walking all the way around to the other end of the inn."

"Aa. Thanks. I'm not picky about which door I use," I assure her. I'm ready to step out into the garden, when a thought strikes me. I pause, and glance at Sai. Now that I think about it, he's the last person you'd want tagging along when trying to grease the wheels of conversation at a bar. He's a minor, anyway. Maybe it would be better to send him back to the others.

But. On the other hand, I'm beginning to think I ought to get to know this mystery member of my squad a little better. This might not be a bad opportunity to get a handle on his capabilities. As a member of ANBU root, he can't possibly be as big a social disaster as he seems, or he'd never have managed to work under cover. I'd really kind of like to see what he makes of a couple dozen drunken sailors.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sai prompts. "Are we waiting for something?"

"No, no, nothing. Let's go."

With a last nod of thanks to the inn-keeper, we pull up our hoods and hurry through the drizzle to the other side of the garden. Entering the tavern from the garden does indeed let us in near the back, but that turns out to be a good thing. The bar is in the back, and the place is so packed that if we'd come in the front way, we'd never have been able to fight our way through. As it is, we manage to squeeze ourselves in along the counter and catch the eye of the frazzled young man tending the bar.

I have to half shout over the noise. "OJ for the kid, please, and for me…" I'm a whiskey man, really, but when you're trying to look sociable, it's gotta be, "…a pint."

"OJ and a pint? OK, just a moment…" On his way to fill our order, the barkeep pauses and leans close to the man next to me. "Master," he begs in low, urgent tones, "If you're gonna be here anyway, could you give me a hand? Keeping up with this crowd is…" Clearly he meant not to be overheard, but packed as close as we are, that's impossible.

"Ahhh, quit yer yapping. Cancha see I'm talkin' to Cap'n Nami, here? An' I don't remember payin' ye so I could tend the bar meself…"

"No, 'course not, Master, but with this many guests…"

"No's no. Git on with yer work, lad."

So this man is the inn-keeper's wayward husband. I begin to see where her hostility towards him comes from. It's hard to imagine what circumstances could have lead to that decorous lady marrying a lout like this. I've got to thank him though, since he's kindly identified the captain for me without my even having to ask. I shrug off my hood, and prepare to edge into their conversation. Before I can do that, however, something very odd starts to happen. The people nearest to me draw back, with looks ranging from shock to anger. They jostle the elbows of their neighbors, and pretty soon the whole tavern is full of silent, staring faces, all directed at me.

The moment passes as quickly as it came. "No, It's not him," someone mutters. The faces begin to turn away, and conversations resume.

The Master, apparently just as surprised as I am by the spooky reaction I seem to have sparked, is still staring at me, and his conversant, the captain, has no choice but to direct his attention likewise.

"Who're you?" the Master asks bluntly.

Before I can answer, Sai fires off a question of his own. "I beg your pardon, but is there something wrong with my companion's head?" The question, and the accompanying smile, are directed to the captain, not the Master.

The captain looks a little surprised at the question. Then a sour look settles over his face. "No, boy. Not exactly, but that hair… you don't see hair like that on a young fellow too often, eh? At least you wouldn't think so." The captain gives me an apologetic nod. "Sorry if we gave you an odd welcome, stranger, but your hair put us in mind of another fellow we had dealings with not too many days back. _ Unfortunate_ dealings…"

Now this is interesting. "A young fellow with white hair, you say?"

"That's right. For a moment we all thought you were him." He jerks his head at the crowded room behind us. "Kaito says nay, though, so we have nothing against you."

"Kaito's the only one who's had direct dealings with this man, is he?" I scan the room trying to pick out the man who broke the silence earlier. No good.

"No, most of us have talked to him… he was a passenger on our ship, actually. Wanted to go to the Kingdom of Typhoon, and didn't want to wait. Well, he promised to pay a damn good fare, that's why we listened to him, but we'd better have stayed safe in the harbor here. We knew a storm was blowing up from the south, but after having that gold waved under our noses, we convinced ourselves we could beat it to the islands. Damn foolish. We didn't of course, beat it. The storm caught us, our good old girl's all bashed to splinters, and to top it all off, this passenger up and disappears without forking over a single coin." He pauses, realizes he's strayed from the topic, and shakes his head. "Anyway, we all talked to him, but he was an odd sort of fellow. Almost always hidden under a cloak and hood. We could tell he was young from his voice, and we knew he had white hair and glasses, but Kaito's the only one who got a good look at his face."

The bartender's back with our drinks, and I take a contemplative swig. White hair, glasses, and trying to get to the Land of Typhoon in a hurry. More and more interesting. There's no doubt that the young man the captain's describing is the suspicious person who was seen around the time people started disappearing from the village in the Land of Typhoon. We're still no closer to finding out whether or not that suspicious person is Kabuto, though. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sai take a few sips of his orange juice, and a thought strikes me.

I turn back to the captain. "This white haired fellow… would Kaito-san recognize his face if he saw it again? Say… in a sketch?" I feel Sai shift at my back. Apparently he's seen where I'm going with this.

"Maybe… It'd depend on how good the sketch was, I s'pose… but if you don't mind my saying so, stranger, you seem awfully interested in this white-haired chap…" The captain gives me a suspicious look. "He wouldn't be an acquaintance of yours, now would he?"

"…In a sense." I smile at the outraged glare the captain is giving me. I can work with that. "We've had some 'unfortunate dealings' with a person of that description ourselves, and we're trying to track him down. We heard he's been making mischief around a village in the Land of Typhoon, and came to this town hoping to charter a ship to take us over to the southernmost island…"

Here, the Master interrupts. "If that's what ye came fer, yer outta luck." He jerks a thumb over his shoulder at the captain. "Yer lookin' at the only bunch that comes down here this time o' year. The crossing's too dangerous, and most think the trade with the southern islands of the Land of Typhoon just ain't worth it. Only way to get where you're goin' now, is to head up the cost to the next port town and catch a boat over to the northernmost island, then work your way down."

The captain has been nodding gravely throughout the Master's speech. "I'm afraid that's true. If only our ship wasn't in such bad shape… I'd like to see you catch that fellow, but he's got a week's start on you. He probably set out on the route the Master described first thing after we were wrecked. If you go the same way, you'll never catch up to him. You might have a chance crossing from here, but it'll be weeks, yet, before our girl's back in the water, and even then she'll only be fit to limp up the coast to a proper dock yard."

Good, good. So the captain would be willing to give us a lift if only his ship was ship-shape. Just what I was hoping for. Now there's only one more thing needed to make our travel plans complete.

"Say captain, would this ship of yours happen to be made of _wood_?"

….

Until next time!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Tenzou_

…..

The surf laps at the splintered boards and spars that litter the beach. We stand staring out at the great hulking wreck of a ship caught on a rocky shoal a little ways off shore. It's a mess. The ship, driven far out of the water, leans heavily. One side of the hull is caved-in practically from stem to stern, the tip of the bow is shorn off, and not one of the three masts remains standing.

"Sempai… When you said you had a little favor to ask…"

Sempai scratches the back of his head sheepishly. "The 'little' part might have been a bit of an understatement."

"I'll say! That ship is a colossal mess! You might as well ask me to build a new one from scratch!"

Sempai examines my reproachful face for a few moments, and then turns to gaze wistfully out at the boat. "I see… I was sure I could count on you, Tenzou, but if you can't do it…"

I bristle, and before I know it, my wounded pride has flung out the words, "Don't be ridiculous! Of course I can do it!"

There's a definite edge of smugness to the smile that Sempai's giving me now, and I kick myself for falling into one of his traps, yet again. I swear to myself that this is the _last_ _time_. Sempai must think he can play me like a fiddle, but I won't let it go on forever. Next time, it will be different. …Next time.

I gather chakra in the soles of my feet, and walk out onto the ocean waves. I reach the wrecked ship, and circle it slowly, taking in the extent of the damage and starting to piece together a plan of attack. There's a gash in the hull near the water line, and I climb through to take a look at how the ship is built from the inside. That's the trouble with fixing an old structure: You've got to tie the repairs in with what's already there.

Sempai has been trailing along behind me with an air of mild (very mild) interest. Eventually, after dogging my steps irritatingly in and out of nearly every room in the ship, he asks me, "How's it look?" Instead of answering him, I climb back out through the hole in the hull.

I look down at the waves rolling under my feet. There's only about a foot of water over the rocks of the shoal, so I let myself sink through it. I'm in much better shape than I was yesterday, fresh from a good night's sleep and well fed, but I'll still need all my concentration and pretty nearly all my chakra for this job. Better to have my feet firmly on the ground.

Keeping a plan of the ship and the changes I need to make steady in my mind, I weave my hand seals, and thrust my palms against the hull of the ship. I push a carefully molded stream of chakra into the lifeless wood. Damaged planks begin to knit together, missing planks are replaced with new growth, and the caved-in side of the ship begins to swell back to its proper shape as the internal joists and cross beams extend. Finally, the three jagged stumps that once were masts shiver to life and stretch skyward.

I hear a cheer rise from the gaggle of sailors back on the beach, but the job feels unfinished to me. I wade back a few meters, panting, and scan my handiwork. My eyes light on the unadorned prow. It looks lonely to me. I wade back to the ship, and with one last push of chakra, the head of a dog, complete with perked ears and a grinning mouthful of teeth, sprouts where the lost figurehead should have been. I hear a chuckle from Sempai behind me, but I don't care. The spirit of things is important too, isn't it?

That little flourish _did_ pretty well finish off the last of my chakra, though, and I stay where I am, leaning against the hull for support. A hand comes to rest on my shoulder. "We'll take it from here, Tenzou. You can rest on the ship while the sailors sort out the rigging and so forth." I think he's done, but after a pause, he adds, "Thanks. This really is a huge help. I don't know where we'd be without you."

The sailors are drawing up to the ship in a rowboat, and Sempai leaves to consult with them. I keep my face to the hull for a little while longer. I've got my breath back by now, but I can feel the heat of a blush rising in my cheeks, and I'd rather not risk Sempai seeing it. His thank you, practically an after-thought and definitely not in proportion to the service rendered, doesn't deserve a blush. I can't help it, though. Praise from Sempai—sincere praise, at any rate—is rare, and it means a lot to me.

And that, I realize, is why my resolution not to be tricked into doing Sempai ridiculous favors will never, ever stick.

….

Sempai's suggestion that I rest on the boat turns out to be impractical. For one thing, the boat may now be whole, but it's still stuck up on the shoal at a crazy tilt. There isn't a single horizontal surface on which to sit or lie. For another, the ship is a-bustle with sailors finishing off the repairs.

As soon as I've recovered enough chakra, I walk back to the relative quiet of the beech. I sit on the sand with my feet in the surf and watch the proceedings at my ease. The morning wears on, and the complex web of rigging starts to take shape around the three new masts. The portion of the hull that I rebuilt is getting a thick coat of pitch, which, much to my surprise, Sempai is helping with. He must really be in a hurry to get going.

By late afternoon, the waterproofing and the rigging are both complete. The sails are hauled into place, and at a sign from Sempai, all the crew members who were outside working on the hull climb up to the deck. Now alone out on the water, he walks half way back to the beach, and then turns to face the boat. He makes another sign to the sailors, and then flashes through a series of hand seals. A wave rises at his feet and rolls out towards the ship, growing in height and speed. As it passes over the shoal, it lifts the ship clear of the rocks and carries it safely out into deeper water.

Sempai half turns and waves for me to come, so I stand up and, brushing the wet sand from my feet as best I can before putting on my shoes, follow him out to the boat. The crew is in good spirits as we sail up the coast to the little port town. Every time one of them passes me, I get a big smile and a thank you. The captain is the most eloquent of all.

"You know, when I first heard from Kakashi-san that he knew someone who would be able to help us out, I was skeptical. Well, you saw the shape our girl was in… To think that she could be fixed in a day! I thought the drink must have gone to his head. But he assured me that you were a man of incredible talent, and that he'd never met someone he could more safely rely on than you. To be sure, I thought he was exaggerating at the time, but now I see that he was in earnest. I can't tell you how grateful I am for what you've done."

I'm somewhat at a loss for words, by this point, but the captain, having said what he wanted to say, turns his mind back to the business at hand, and strides off without waiting for an answer.

I expect that Sempai's glowing recommendation was more of a sales-pitch than an earnest expression of his opinion, but it's still nice to hear it.

….

It doesn't take long to sail the few miles North to the port town, so it's not yet evening when we pull alongside the dock. The crew, eager to be at sea again after a week's enforced stay ashore in a town with no compensating entertainments, sets about resupplying the ship with impressive zeal. Still, the sun has all but set by the time the hold is full, and the captain decides to push our departure back to tomorrow morning. The delay also gives him an opportunity to show his gratitude to the inn-keeper, who he's been importuning for so long. He throws a banquet for her and her husband aboard his newly repaired ship. We're included too, of course. The fare isn't exactly fancy, but it's good, solid food, and there's a lot of it. Most importantly from the inn-keeper's perspective, I expect, she dosen't have do anything about either making it or cleaning it up. The crew handles all of that, so even after the dinner is over, she can sit at her leisure and join the conversation between her husband and the captain.

The husband is a bit of a surprise. I've never met him before, and he's not quite what I would have expected from the spouse of a woman like the innkeeper. He's as unpolished and abrupt as she is gracious and refined, and at first I can't fathom how to two ended up together. I start to get an idea, however, as the conversation progresses. The Master may be crude, but he's far from ignorant. He's a positive wealth of information and advice—as far as ships, trade, and the sea are concerned. I'm no judge, myself, but I can tell that the captain respects his judgment. The two men have their heads together over some proposed alteration to the captain's plans for the season, and the captain is nodding with grave attention to everything the master says. Next to them, the innkeeper's back is growing straighter by the minute, and her eyes are beginning to gleam as pride in her husband's expertise drives away her chronic weariness. He might not be everything she could wish for, but he's got his appeal.

I have to smile, here. I'm reminded of another infuriating, deeply flawed, but charming individual. It must have been the same for her as it is for me.

I look over at Sempai. He's sitting with us, too, but he doesn't seem to be paying attention to the conversation. He's leaning forward with his chin resting on his palm, watching Sai sketch. Now that I think about it, it's a little odd for Sai to be sketching with so many people about. He seems to regard his art as highly personal, and usually wanders off to some private place when he wants to paint. I'm about to ask what he's drawing, when he puts away his brush and hands the scroll he's been working on to Sempai. My surprise grows as Sempai wordlessly passes the scroll to the _captain_. The captain pauses in the middle of a debate over whether there's likely to be a market for silk in a town I've never heard of, and glances over the scroll. Then, lifting his head, he calls out "KAITO!" His deep, booming voice easily cuts through the chatter of the crew, and one man pops up from the crowd and hastens to his captain's side.

The captain holds out the scroll as he approaches. "Is this the man, Kaito?"

Kaito takes the scroll. His face twists into a scowl as he studies the image. "No doubt, Cap'n. This is the man." He hands the scroll back.

The captain thanks him, and then passes the scroll to Sempai. "Well, there you have it. May the gods of the sea and wind give us speed, for I'd like nothing better than to see you catch this… snake," he mutters grimly.

Sempai is looking unusually serious himself. There's a cold, keen look in his eye; the sort of look he used to get on missions when the critical moment was near. "So do I, Captain, and I appreciate the help you're giving us. Are you sure you won't take any payment for our passage?"

The captain shakes his head, and glances in my direction. His expression lightens visibly. "Not a word more on that head! A free ride is hardly enough, considering what your friend's done for us! I appreciate your offer, Kakashi-san, but I stand by my promise."

Sempai's serious expression dissipates like smoke in the wind. His eye arches into a smile. "Well, if you insist…"

The captain returns to his conversation with the Master, and Kakashi moves to give the scroll back to Sai. En-route, however, he catches sight of my dumbfounded expression, and passes the scroll to me instead. I unfurl the first section, and look at the face outlined there. I recognize it immediately. Yakushi Kabuto. My eyes shoot up to Sempai's face.

"What's this all about, Sempai?"

"Maa… The kids may as well hear this, too, so I'll explain a little later when…" he stops abruptly and his eye jumps to a spot over my right shoulder. His hand darts towards the scroll, as if to hide it, but he's too late.

There's a hastily muffled yelp from behind me. I look up to see Sakura, standing there with wide eyes and a hand still clapped over her mouth. The couple from the inn, the captain, and several of the crew who were close enough to hear are shooting us inquisitive glances. Sempai sighs and turns to the captain. "Sorry, I hadn't quite gotten around to explaining the situation to my team. If you'll excuse me, I think I'd better go do that now." He catches my eye and jerks his head towards the door of the mess. I gather up the kids and herd them out into the corridor while Sempai takes leave of the innkeeper and her husband. He joins us in the hall, and we head off to the cabin the Captain is letting us use.

Sempai closes the door behind us, and settles cross-legged on one of the bunks. Sai retires to the bunk opposite, but the rest of us gather around Sempai.

"Kakashi-sensei… That was a picture of…" Sakura trails off and glances at Naruto. "Did that sailor know something?"

"Oi, oi!" Naruto breaks in. "Can somebody clue me in, here? You guys all seem to know something I don't!"

"No, we're in the same boat you are, Naruto," I assure him. I turn to Sempai with a frown. "So, we're all here, now, and there's no one to disturb us. Care to explain what's going on?"

"Just a moment. Before I start, Naruto's the only one who hasn't seen this yet." He hands over Sai's scroll and watches while Naruto rolls it out.

Naruto's eyes grow wide, and then his face twists into a scowl. "Kabuto!" he spits. For a moment he seems to be caught up in angry memories, but his expression of disgust is gradually replaced by one of confusion. "But Kakashi-sensei, I don't get it." He waves the scroll back and forth. "What's a picture of Kabuto got to do with anything?"

Sempai finally begins his explanation. I'd already guessed from what passed in the mess that the crew member Kaito must have seen a man fitting Kabuto's description, but the news that Kabuto had been on this very boat one week earlier, trying to get to the same island we are, is new to me.

Kakashi finishes off with Kaito's positive identification of Kabuto based on Sai's sketch. "So the probability that Kabuto is involved in the disappearances is very high…" I muse. "But he's left the island at least once since the disappearances started. Reporting back to Orochimaru on his progress, maybe? Anyway, if this is some sort of ongoing project, we have to consider the possibility that Kabuto isn't working alone. There may have been someone else on the island keeping an eye on things while Kabuto was away."

"Mm. That's a definite possibility." Sempai smiles at me.

"Then…" Sakura hesitates, her face a mix of anxious hope and doubt. "There's a possibility that Sasuke's there too?"

This time, Sempai doesn't smile. He regards her carefully before saying gently, "I'm sorry, Sakura. I won't say it's impossible, but it's not likely. Sasuke wasn't with Kabuto on any of the other occasions we've come across him."

Sakura isn't quite ready to give up. "Couldn't Orochimaru's home base be on the island, too? Then Sasuke would…"

Sempai shakes his head. "Orochimaru is trying not to be found. I don't think he'd do something as flamboyant as abducting 100 people in the vicinity of his own base. Someone would be bound to notice and come sniffing around… like we are."

Sakura and Naruto are now both exuding gloom, and Sempai rubs the back of his head. "Maa, maa. At least we know that Kabuto came this way. If we can catch him, it'll be a big step towards finding Sasuke."

"But Sensei," Sakura mutters in a lifeless voice. "According to you, he's got a week's head start. He could have finished what he wanted to do in the Land of Typhoon and disappeared already…"

"Ah… Well the situation's not quite so dire as that. It's true that Kabuto has a week's start on us, but he'll have had to go the long way round. According to the Master, that route takes at least a week. Crossing from here, on the other hand, should get us there in two days. Who knows; we may even get to the islands first."

Naruto's energy returns instantly. "Then what are we waiting for! Let's set sail tonight!"

Sempai laughs. "Don't be in such a rush, Naruto. Leave the sailing to the sailors. If the captain says it's better to start in the morning, then I won't argue with him. The whole crew has been working flat out all day, you know. If the watchman falls asleep and we run up on another shoal, we'll be back to square one."

Naruto pouts and mutters under his breath, but doesn't challenge Sempai's decision.

It's times like this that I have to admire Sempai as a leader. He's the one who's engineered things so that we could leave as soon as possible, and though he doesn't show it openly the way Sakura and Naruto do, I know that Sasuke is important to him, too. He must be unhappy about the delay himself, but here he is, calmly reconciling his team to the wait. I admire his detachment.

Now if only that detachment didn't apply to me, too.

…

K, time to sleep. I'm toast.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Kakashi_

….

_Sachiko put a small, white hand on Kyou's arm and gazed up into his face. "You do love me, don't you Kyou? Sometimes I just can't tell what you're thinking…"_

_Kyou let the sword fall from his hand, and folded Sachiko in bloody embrace. "Nothing good will come of our being together." His voice was low and fierce, but he held her all the tighter._

"_Maybe not… but I love you, Kyou, and so for me, nothing good will come of our being apart. Is it the same for you?"_

_Kyou, at war with himself, remained silent, and Sachiko gently freed herself from his grip and stepped back. She watched his tortured face with pity, but she had already made up her mind to resolve this, one way or another._

"_If you love me, Kyou, then show me." She reached up and unfastened the top button of her blouse…_

"You know, Sempai, it's kind of creepy to see you sitting there, giggling to yourself over that book…"

I look up, surprised, to see Tenzou standing next to my bunk. The creaking of the ship and the sound of the ocean just on the other side of the hull must have disguised the sound of the door opening. And… some blame might be ascribed to my being too caught up in the story. In any event, Tenzou's chosen a particularly bad moment to show up. My heart rate's up, and my body's tingling… in anticipation of the racy scene I was just about to read, of course, but now that Tenzou's standing right there, my overexcited imagination is straying in directions I'd rather it wouldn't.

"Just what kind of book is that, anyway? Look. You're even blushing!" Tenzou observes. Then, thinking about what he's just said, he promptly blushes himself, and looks away. He's silent for a moment, and the words "She watched his tortured face with pity," flit across my brain before he stammers out, "A-anyway. I, ah, just came to ask if you wanted to join me and some of the crew in a game of cards… but it seems like you're entertaining yourself just fine, so… Never mind." He backs out of the cabin and shuts the door.

I turn back to my book, but I can't focus on the trials and tribulations of Sachiko and Kyou.

It seems he hasn't got over me just yet. At least not entirely.

Of course he hasn't. In hindsight, I realize that he's been quietly and unobtrusively in love with me… essentially since we met. And on some level, I suppose I've always known it. It's just that he was_ so_ quiet and unobtrusive about it that I could pretend not to see the inconvenient truth. If it weren't for those few, unguarded months in the beginning of our acquaintance, I might have been honestly blind to it.

Every new ANBU recruit is in love with his or her captain for the first few weeks. Most of them, however, get over it. They start to realize that their captain isn't a god—or even a very good human being—and they gradually stop hanging on his or her every word, dogging his or her steps, and doing crazy, stupid things in an attempt to get his or her approval.

Of course, I had no _personal _experience with this phenomenon. After Minato-sensei, my ANBU squad captain was quite a step down, and… well… instant adoration was never in my nature to begin with. I'd heard plenty of stories from other ANBU, though, so at first I didn't realize there was anything unusual about Tenzou's behavior. He was just another young, starry-eyed, new recruit. His infatuation wasn't with me, but with an idealized projection of ANBU, and in any event, it would peter out before long.

Except that it didn't.

It was actually my squad members that first alerted me that something was off. I was the captain, but until Tenzou came along, I was the youngest member of the team by at least a decade. Furthermore, I'd only been in ANBU six months before being assigned to lead a squad, and was still relatively unknown. My squad members weren't particularly inclined to listen to me, at least to begin with. They did eventually come around to following orders during actual missions, but they never relinquished the right to tease me ceaselessly. Most of the time I simply tuned out their jokes, but when one of them actually presented me with a dog collar "for your new ninken" with a tag reading "Tenzou," I had to take notice. Months had gone by, I realized, and the kid was still stuck to me like glue. He was quiet and helpful, so I'd been letting him tag along with me practically everywhere I went. He even slept in my apartment some nights. He'd stay late helping me with paperwork, and then before I knew it, I'd be waking up on the couch with a neat stack of completed paperwork on the coffee table beside me, and the sounds and scents of Tenzou cooking breakfast floating in from the kitchen. An extremely convenient companion, was Tenzou. Besides. It wasn't so bad, having someone there to talk to when I got tired of silence. He never spoke unless I did first, but once he got going, he was really quite funny. Insightful, too, when he could be tricked and wheedled into giving his real opinion…

My squad mates had a point, though. His puppy-dog enthusiasm for me was definitely out of the ordinary, and I began to worry a little. I realized that Tenzou hadn't been your typical new recruit to begin with. True, it was his first official assignment to a squad, but Tenzou had been raised in ANBU practically from infancy. As used to ANBU as he was, it didn't seem likely that he'd get excited over someone just because they were an ANBU squad captain. It dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, the kid was legitimately in love with me.

The first thing, of course, would have been to stop letting the kid follow me home, and despite his phenomenal usefulness for paperwork, I resolved to do that the very day after the dog collar incident. Tenzou was a sweet kid, if a little weird, and should have been out making a life for himself. I couldn't let him keep chasing after a dead-end guy like me.

As it turned out, however, I never had to lift a finger. The day I first realized there was something wrong was the last day Tenzou ever followed me home. From then on, he stopped spending time with me outside of work, and even during missions he became much more reserved. Almost formal. Looking back, I suppose he must have found out about the dog collar and backed off after seeing my less than enthusiastic reaction. At the time, though, I preferred to believe that the problem had never really existed in the first place, and pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind.

Even after that, however, there were clues that I was more to Tenzou than just an ordinary sempai, if only I'd been inclined to notice them. He was never openly adoring again, and while his formal reserve eventually wavered, he replaced it with a sarcastic prickliness that was every bit as effective a distancing mechanism. Still, when it came down to it, he worked hard to become my best support, and kept that place as long as he possibly could. He was offered positions as squad captain several times, but he always chose to stay where he was, under my command. And it sure as hell made my life easier to have him there. All through my tenure as an ANBU squad captain, there was no one I could count on to follow my lead the way Tenzou would. There were times when other squad members, fed up with sudden changes in plan, refused to follow my orders. Tenzou complained as loudly as the rest, but he always came through for me in the end, and it was usually his mild, half joking entreaties that brought the others around, too.

But there were downsides to Tenzou's apparent inability to refuse my orders. Most of the people who worked under me were more than happy to tell me when I asked them to do something stupid or impossible. That was fine. That was normal. Sometimes they had information that I didn't, and all it meant was that we put our heads together and came up with a better plan. Tenzou, though. He certainly grumbled a lot in later years, but no matter how dangerous or absurd my instructions were, he'd carry them out. It was a little nerve-wracking, actually. Tenzou happens to be one of the most capable ninja I know, so he always managed to come back alive, but I've always wondered whether he would say something if I asked him to do a job that really was too much for him, or whether he would just die trying. Back then, it actually kept me from utilizing Tenzou to his full potential.

All things considered, my leaving ANBU was probably the best thing for him. That wasn't how I thought of it at the time, of course. I had convinced myself that absolute obedience and loyalty were an inherent part of Tenzou's character, and that he'd be the same whoever he served under.

Luckily for my peace of mind, I didn't find out until years later that Tenzou's ANBU career took off as soon as I was gone.

He never mentioned it himself, of course, even though we did meet occasionally during the years after I left ANBU. When Tenzou was assigned to be my temporary replacement as leader of Team Kakashi, I asked to see his ANBU records for the years after I left. What was my surprise when I found that he'd taken my place as captain then, too, and kept it for _six years_. When he left his position as squad captain, it was to do solo work so delicate and dangerous that the presence of less skilled subordinates would have been a liability. Looking at the list of Tenzou's missions and imagining the degree of flexibility and ruthlessness that he would have needed to handle them successfully, I expected to find a very different Tenzou than the one I left. So far, though, things are shaping up to be pretty much the same. Tenzou is still hopelessly helpful, and despite the fact that his drunken blunder let the cat out of the bag, he's still politely keeping his distance… or more accurately, he's still letting me keep mine. It's me, after all, who doesn't want to get too close.

That's a policy I have no intention of changing.

…Even if working with Tenzou again is making me realize how much paler my days are when he's not around.

…..


	9. Chapter 9

The amazing, metastasizing chapter. Enjoy?

…..

_Tenzou_

…..

I lie awake on the bare floor of the cabin, and stare at the ceiling.

There are four bunks in the cabin the ship's captain lent us for the voyage, and there are five of us, so we've been taking turns sleeping on the floor. The first night Sempai volunteered to do it. Now it's my turn.

It's not that I mind sleeping on the floor. During my years in ANBU, I learned to sleep pretty much anywhere; perched in a tree, half submerged in a swamp, hidden up in someone's rafters, or down under someone's floor… name the place, and I've probably slept there.

No. The problem tonight is Naruto. He's been sleepwalking again.

He's got one of the top bunks, and three times already he's jumped right out of it and gone stumbling around the narrow confines of the room. Last time he very nearly landed on an extremely sensitive spot. I shudder to think what might have happened if I hadn't rolled over in my sleep at just the right moment. Needless to say, I can't drop my guard again in the face of such dangers, so I'm simply lying here in the dark, listening to the sleeping noises of my teammates.

Naruto, back in his bed for the moment, is thrashing around, snorting, spluttering, and muttering something in which Jiraiya and empty wallets figure prominently.

Sai, in the bunk below, is lying completely still, quiet, and pale, with his eyes slightly open. I'd be tempted to check if he's still alive, but I recognize the habits of someone trained from a young age to be absolutely silent and alert to danger even when sleeping. I've lost my touch, somewhat, but I used to be able to do that, too.

The second top bunk is occupied by Sakura. She's not as restless as Naruto, but I can hear her toss and turn now and then, and once, during a lull in Naruto's louder rustlings, I hear her say something. Her unconscious words are slurred, but I think she's saying, "_Take that, Ino-pig!_"

In the bunk below her, is Sempai. He's almost as still and quiet as Sai, though if I listen for it, I can hear the whisper of his breath through the fabric of his mask. It's a familiar sound, and it brings back memories of a time when I really thought, for the first time in my life, that I was happy.

…

When someone first learns about what Orochimaru did to me, they look at me with pity. Frankly, though, I don't remember any of it. I was barely more than an infant when I was found and rescued, so my first memories are of days spent studying and training with the ANBU who raised me. I had no idea how I came to be there, or that my abilities had such an unusual origin, until they sat me down and explained it all on my thirteenth birthday.

There _were_ the dreams, of course. They faded as I grew older, but I still have them occasionally when I've got too much on my mind; nightmares of a place lit with constant, unvarying, and unnatural light, the air thick with the sickly smell of antiseptic. And the worst of it was, I couldn't _move_. Sometimes, there would be people—and one person who terrified me beyond all the rest—looming over me. I couldn't see these people clearly, except on the occasions when, after being particularly strict with me, my ANBU caretakers would take the places of my tormentors in the dream. Now, of course, I realize that those dreams must been the blurred memories of Orochimaru's research facility. As a child, however, I simply assumed they were products of my imagination.

With such vague recollections, I was actually surprised to find that I still recognized Orochimaru. Prior to taking an official post in ANBU, I thought it would be a good idea to familiarize myself with the Bingo Book. As I was leafing through it, I came across the picture of a pale man with a high forehead, long black hair, a wide mouth, and unsettling golden eyes framed in purple. Looking into those eyes, I felt a clawing fear rise in me. I wanted to throw the book down and run, but of course I didn't, because being afraid of a book was absurd. I forced myself to look and see who this man was, and once I identified him as Orochimaru, I actually felt much calmer. I'd been confused and disturbed over my own reaction, but as long as I understood what it was and where it came from, I thought I could control it. And I did. I've met Orochimaru in person twice, now. When I first see him and hear his voice, there's always a surge of fear, but I can push it down until it's little more than background noise. That's just part of being an ANBU. There's no place for people who let themselves be carried away by fear. No excuses. And really, I don't need an excuse, because I'm _fine_.

People pity me for losing my parents, too, but I remember them even less than I remember Orochimaru. In fact, I didn't really understand that there _were_ such things as parents until relatively late in life. No one knew what kind of after effects Orochimaru's tampering might have, so I was kept separate from the rest of the villagers, raised exclusively by ANBU. Until my mid-teens, my very existence was classified. I had no experience, therefore, with other children or with the parents of children to tell me that something was odd about my situation. My world consisted entirely of myself and the six ANBU who shared the duty of caring for me.

If there was a tragedy in my life, it was being raised like that.

I don't bear any grudge, of course. I understand why the Konoha elders thought it was necessary to keep me in isolation. And as for my caretakers… they were just doing their best to complete the mission they were given. That's just it, though. They saw raising me as a mission. There were six of them who watched over me in pairs for eight hour shifts. For those eight hours a day that they were responsible, they made sure I was well fed and healthy. They attended diligently to my education. They spent tireless hours training me to make the most of my abilities. What they never did was play with me, laugh with me, or even smile at me. During my spare hours, I was left to entertain myself while my caretakers looked on with impassive masked faces. Those cold, blank stares bothered me, and I learned quickly that the only way I could catch their interest, the only way I could really feel connected to them, was to throw myself into their training. In a certain sense, I did become close with them, especially in later years when they began to bring me out on missions, but it was an odd sort of completely professional closeness. There was nothing warm or personal about it. They were always ANBU, and I was always their mission.

That was how, entering an official ANBU squad at the age of fourteen, I found myself with absolutely no idea how to talk to my comrades. I could give and receive information pertaining to the mission, of course; that much was within the realm of my experience, but apparently there was more to it than that. My companions spent a baffling amount of time talking to each other even when it wasn't necessary, and when our work was done, they would keep together and go on talking. They talked about themselves, people they knew, and things that had happened to them. They asked questions about each other's lives, and seemed interested in knowing the answers. They joked with each other, laughing over things that made no sense to me, and gave each other little shoves and punches on the arm.

At first, they tried to include me, but I was completely bewildered, and no matter how closely I observed the behavior of the others and tried to copy it, when the time came to act, my body just didn't know what to do. When someone tried to give me a friendly touch, I'd stiffen and go on the alert. After all, in my experience, there was no reason to touch someone unless you were correcting their taijutsu form. When someone tried to_ joke_ with me… All I could do was stare blankly back at them, while my panicked mind groped for a response that wasn't there. Eventually, my squad members and the other ANBU who gathered together when they weren't working stopped trying to approach me.

There was only one who was different.

To tell the truth, I wasn't all that impressed with Sempai at first. Of course I recognized that he had incredible talent as a shinobi, but as a captain, he was… lax. He didn't seem to take anything seriously, and in return, his team didn't seem to take _him_ seriously. Nobody bothered to address him as "Taichou," and the other members of the team talked with him and about him in exactly the same relaxed, joking manner they used with each other.

It wasn't until my third mission with my new squad that I began to revise my opinion of Sempai. The mission was a straightforward assassination of a provincial governor plotting treason against the government of the Land of Verse. There was solid evidence that he was gathering a force of rogue ninja and bandits at his estate, but by the time the King and his advisors became suspicious, this governor had ingratiated himself so thoroughly with members of the court, that passing a movement to mobilize government troupes against him had become impossible. All that was left, therefore, was for the King and his loyal advisors to have the treasonous governor quietly silenced. By us.

Another team had been sent in earlier to scout out the governor's defenses. Based on the reconnaissance they brought back to us, the mission looked fairly simple. The sheer number of the enemy was daunting, but security was loose, and as long as we could slip through undetected, what did it matter how many of them there were?

Unfortunately, things didn't go that smoothly. Among the mercenaries the governor had gathered, there was one sensory type ninja of considerable talent. The reconnaissance team had been detected, and by the time we arrived, the governor and his patchwork army were ready for us. They allowed us to work ourselves deep into their fortifications before suddenly springing into action and closing in on our members with pinpoint accuracy. Sempai, our squadmate Kannagiyama, and I all managed to evade capture, but our fourth member, Tawamu, had strayed too far ahead and was trapped. Our three remaining members regrouped deep in the surrounding forest, where Sempai judged that we would be out of range of even the best sensory ninja. I was shaken. It was my first time losing a teammate, however temporary the loss might prove to be, and I couldn't see how we could either complete our mission or retrieve Tawamu with the enemy reading our every move.

What Sempai said next didn't do much to relieve my concern. His grand plan to remedy the situation was for _two more_ of us to get caught; specifically, himself and me. He'd studied the plans of the fortress, and there was only one place—a small room sunk into the thick stone foundation on which the fortress stood—that was secure enough to act as a jail. Furthermore, this room was directly under the governor's private quarters, so getting captured would effectively deliver us straight to the companion we were trying to save, and at the same time put us in easy striking distance of our target. I thought that, now that we knew what to expect, we might be able to fight our way through to the governor _without_ getting captured, but when I hazarded this opinion, Sempai gently but firmly insisted that we had to tread carefully while Tawamu was still a hostage. I was a little ashamed. I hadn't really been thinking seriously about Tawamu's safety. Still, it seemed to me that, while getting caught would certainly bring us to our teammate, getting locked up with him wouldn't do anyone any good. I was reluctant to challenge Sempai's plans a second time, but it didn't seem like I had a choice. When I voiced my concern, however, Sempai simply chuckled, and said "Don't worry, Tenzou. You'll get us out in no time. " To which Kannagiyama kindly added, "And if you can't, then I'll still be free to bring reinforcements from Konoha. Eventually."

It was with grave misgivings, therefore, that I followed Sempai back to the fortress. We put on a show of trying to sneak back in and resist capture, but within half an hour we were crowded into a very small, very dark room, with our hands secured behind our backs with steel cuffs, listening to Tawamu laugh his head off.

Tawamu's mirth was seriously wearing on my nerves, but I didn't feel any tension what so ever from Sempai, whose shoulder was crammed up against mine. He just calmly waited for his subordinate to stop laughing at him before finally asking, "Tawamu. You can pick locks, can't you?"

There was a rustle and a clink from Tawamu's side of the cell as he shrugged. "Sorry. I've got my picks, but I can't reach the lock on my own cuffs."

"But you can reach the lock on mine."

"Ahh. I see. I do yours, you do mine."

"Not exactly. You do Tenzou's and mine. I'm afraid yours are going to have to wait until we meet up with Kannagiyama. Unless… Tenzou, I don't suppose you can pick locks?"

I could, actually, but it wasn't a skill I used often, so it hadn't occurred to me to offer my services. I nodded in affirmation, and then realized that my teammates couldn't see the gesture in the dark. Apparently Sempai felt it, though, and translated the nod into words for me. "You're in luck. Tenzou says he can."

There was disbelief in Tawamu's voice as he asked, "This kid? No joke?" I can understand why he was surprised. I must have looked to him like a straight-laced, elitist brat, who couldn't take a joke, and would certainly never stoop to lock picking. And maybe he wasn't entirely wrong about me, but pick locks I could, and after a bit of shuffling around and finding each-other's hands in the dark, we were all cuff-less. Now the only problem was getting out of the cell, and as I ran my now freed hands over the walls, I was beginning to form a grim picture of our chances. The little room was lined with steel, and as I explained to Sempai at the time, there was nothing that I could do with that. Earth I could move, stone I could move, metal bars I could pry apart with sturdy, grasping roots, but thick, flawlessly joined and welded plate-steel was hopeless. There was a door, of course, but it fit so tightly into its frame that not even the slenderest root tip could slip into the gap, and it seemed to be bolted from the outside rather than locked, so picking wouldn't work, either.

Sempai didn't seem bothered by the news. He just told me that if I could put a thick layer of wood between us and the metal floor, he'd take care of the rest. I couldn't imagine how that would help, but I did as I was told. As soon as I was finished, the room lit up with the dazzling light of Sempai's raikiri. He turned his face to the ceiling and studied it for a moment with catlike intensity before leaping up and putting a chakra-wrapped fist right through the plate steel. Electricity skittered down and around the walls, and a faintly charred smell rose from the wooden platform I'd built for us.

"Well, Tenzou, there's your hole. Pry away."

Wordlessly, I set to work pealing back the edges of the break in the steel, until there was a man-sized hole in the ceiling. A layer of stone still remained between us and freedom, but Sempai blasted it aside with a jutsu of his own, and pulled himself up through the resulting crevasse before I'd even finished retracting my roots. By the time Tawamu and I had clambered up after him, Sempai was waiting by the dead body of the governor, who had apparently been asleep in his quarters, just over our heads.

And just like that, the mission was accomplished.

Escape proved to be no problem, since without their employer to direct them, the cobbled-together band of mercenaries lacked cohesion. We slipped easily through the mayhem, and were back at our rendezvous point in no time.

Kannagiyama and Tawamu had just set off in the direction of Konoha, and I was ready to follow, when Sempai reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. I flinched, as usual, but Sempai didn't let go. He just stood there like that until he felt my tension ease, and then gave my shoulder a final squeeze.

"Good job today, Tenzou. Glad to have you on the team."

Maybe those words were nothing special, the sort of thing that most people would barely even register, but for me… that was the first time in my life anyone had ever said they were glad I was there. And the way he waited for me to get used to his touch instead of recoiling like all the rest… After that, there was no way I could have gone on despising Sempai.

Besides. During that mission, I'd begun to see that, while Sempai's instructions might seem haphazard or just downright insane, he did usually have a plan, and he did really have the welfare of his subordinates in mind. All of his subordinates, not just the ones that could be seen as valuable assets to Konoha. My ANBU caretakers had always protected me religiously, but that was because I carried the Shodaime's DNA. Tawamu, while certainly a competent ANBU, was hardly irreplaceable, and I realized that Sempai must have prioritized getting him back safely out of concern for him as an individual, not as a tool. This was a novel idea to me, and logically it didn't really seem to fit into the ANBU codes that had been drilled into me as a kid. ANBU _were_ tools, and I wasn't sure it was acceptable for a squad captain to lose sight of that. But… somehow there was something very appealing about Sempai's way of thinking. I thought I'd felt secure in the flawlessly professional hands of my caretakers, but when Sempai touched my shoulder and told me he was glad to have me, I felt like he was supporting me in ways I hadn't even known I needed support.

I started to watch how the rest of the team interacted with him with greater attention, and came to understand that, beneath their joking manner, they really trusted and respected Sempai. They put up with his counterintuitive orders because they had faith that he'd make everything turn out right in the end, and that his idea of "right" had bringing us all home alive and well at the very top of the list.

I also, however, noticed that Sempai rarely bothered to engage in their joking and talking. In some respects, he was much more like me, spending most of his spare time alone, rarely asking after the friends and family of his subordinates, or even seeming to listen when Kannagiyama and Tawamu brought up the subject themselves. He was generally just as unresponsive as I was to jokes or personal questions, and he didn't even have the excuse of being rendered speechless. He actually seemed to be outright ignoring the speaker, which made him much the ruder of the two of us, in my opinion. And yet no one shunned Sempai the way they did me. I was confused, a little envious, a little impressed, and determined to find out how he managed to pull it off, so I began to spend more and more time with Sempai, observing him.

At least, that was my initial goal. I soon forgot all about it.

My attempts to study Sempai led me to find excuses to stay close to him even outside of missions. At first it was just helping him with administrative paperwork in the ANBU lounge. The only thing I learned about Sempai from that exercise, however, was that he would have made an abysmal clerk. Sempai's version of a "completed" form was generally missing at least half of the necessary information. I couldn't stand the idea of those forms being filed in that woefully inadequate state, so I surreptitiously began fixing Sempai's share of the paperwork in addition to completing my own. After I started doing this, the quality of Sempai's work fell drastically, and I realized that Sempai not only had noticed what I was doing, but had no qualms about leaving everything to me. I stopped trying to be subtle, therefore, and simply took on the lion's share of the work. I didn't really mind. It gave me just the excuse I was looking for to stay with Sempai longer, and it wasn't as if I had anything else to do. When I'd first been released from my quarantine in ANBU, I took pleasure in just walking around town, wandering wherever my fancy took me or drifting along with the crowds of ordinary townsfolk. That form of entertainment palled rapidly, however, and then I had nothing to do outside work but return to the tiny, single-room apartment I'd been given, and sit by myself.

One night, when I had been "helping" Sempai until particularly late in the evening, I found that instead of turning aside to go to my own apartment, I'd actually followed Sempai to his. The two of us realized my mistake at approximately the same time, and for one awkward moment we just stood there and stared at each other outside Sempai's room. Then he shrugged and opened his door.

"Why not. Come on in, Tenzou." Not knowing what else to do, I followed him inside.

That first visit didn't last long. Somehow, being alone with Sempai, having his attention completely fixed on me instead of being constantly drawn away by the stream of people who came to talk to him (or at least _at_ him) in the ANBU lounge, was completely different. I was too filled with nervous excitement to be able to talk, so I escaped after only a few minutes.

It was a beginning, though. The next time Sempai found himself bogged down in paperwork, he paused before sitting down at our usual spot in the lounge, and looked from the table, to the papers in his hand, to the loitering ANBU already beginning to take note of his presence, and finally to me.

"Mind if we work at my place? It'll be quieter."

I didn't mind. I was more than willing, actually. The memory of the strange sensations I'd felt the last time I was alone with Sempai had faded enough to leave me ashamed of having gotten worked up for what I concluded must have been no reason. I was determined to try it again and redeem myself. So, I followed him home, and was, in fact, quite fine. That was probably due in large part to the presence of the mountain of paperwork, since it absorbed most of my attention, but the fact that we arrived at his apartment in broad daylight also helped. I've since come to realize that Sempai and night time are a dangerous combination for me.

Several more afternoons at Sempai's ensued, and I began to relax around Sempai to a degree I hadn't imagined possible. Until the age of fourteen I had been under nearly constant surveillance. Even while I slept, the two ANBU who had the night shift would be in the room with their eyes trained on me. No one literally watched me on the toilet, at least, but there was always someone just outside the door. Under those conditions, I was never able to completely let my guard down. _Never_. I was always watching my caretakers, looking for a sign that I was doing something wrong, and watching myself to make sure I was fulfilling all their expectations perfectly. When I was finally given my own apartment and could be really _alone_ for the first time… Well, for the first few days the experience was too novel to be enjoyed, but as I got used to it, I felt delicious freedom opening out all around me. Being with Sempai was kind of like being alone, in that respect. He never seemed particularly concerned about the flaws of other people… or his own. Imperfection was accepted, even expected.

But being with Sempai was hands-down better than being alone. After the novelty of freedom had worn off, I began to find being alone so much… _lonely_, and while I never really knew what to say to people, I found myself yearning to talk to someone. In the course of my visits to his apartment, Sempai became that someone.

When I first met Sempai, I found talking to him just as awkward as talking to anyone else. He, however, never seemed disturbed by my blank stares and unresponsiveness. If he needed an answer, he was unfailingly patient with me while I collected my wits enough to give one. If he didn't, he would simply shrug and sink into an amicable silence. Most of our time together in his apartment was a continuation of that pattern, but occasionally if I didn't answer, he would just quietly go on talking… not to himself; I always had the sense that he was talking very specifically to _me_, but in such a way that I wouldn't have to say anything if I didn't want to.

And since there was no pressure on me to supply the right reply at the right time, I found that I could really enjoy listening to Sempai. His voice soothed me, and when he mentioned people he knew, I found myself genuinely interested in them. I even found myself wanting to know more than Sempai's oblique references to the people and events in his life revealed. That was a great relief to me. I had been beginning to wonder, if there was something wrong with me for _not_ being interested in hearing about the lives and well being of Tawamu and Kannagiyama. In my upbringing, inquiring after people had been pointless. Every moment of my life was observed, so my ANBU caretakers already knew _exactly_ how I was, and never bothered with the empty courtesy of asking. Their lives, on the other hand, were complete black-boxes to me, but whenever it occurred to me to ask about them, my questions were ignored. On the whole, I came away with the impression that if you didn't already know everything about someone, you weren't supposed to, and I stopped thinking about it. I'd begun to realize, however, that out here in the world, lack of interest in other people's lives was considered not merely rude, but pathological. I'd tried to be interested, therefore, in what Tawamu and Kannagiyama said of themselves and the people they knew, but I just couldn't seem to manage it. Listening to Sempai, however, I realized that I _wasn't _some sort of sociopath. It was just that the anxiety that usually pervaded all my social interactions drove away every other thought and feeling.

Now that I wasn't so nervous, I could listen with clear attention, and one evening I got so caught up in the moment that I forgot to be tongue-tied. The "conversation" that night was about our next mission, which was supposed to be a three team operation. Two ANBU squads were backing up a squad of regular jounin. Kakashi apparently knew the leader of the regular squad, a shinobi by the name of Maito Gai, and had been tasked with picking out a second ANBU squad that would be capable of working with him. As I worked through the reports for the last mission, therefore, he looked through the available squads for the next one.

Sempai had mentioned Maito Gai on several other occasions, and though he never said much, I was beginning to get the impression that they were fairly close. He always spoke about Gai with such a peculiar mix of respect and derision that I couldn't help but be intrigued… and at the same time irritated. I _liked_ that Sempai wasn't critical of me, but at the same time I was jealous of this Maito Gai for being able to goad Sempai out of his benevolent apathy. I couldn't help thinking that he was only so open-minded with the rest of us because we didn't really _matter_ to him. Every time Sempai mentioned Gai's name, therefore, I got a little more annoyed. Around the fifth time Sempai muttered something to the effect of "I can't use this team. The captain won't be able to deal with Gai's insanity," or "Hmm. I don't think they'll be able to keep up with Gai's ridiculous pace…," I couldn't help but blurt out petulantly, "You keep complaining about Gai-san, Sempai, but you really _like_ him, don't you."

Sempai stopped in the middle of what he was doing and stared at me. He looked about as surprised as if his armchair had just accused him of preferring the sofa. I blushed and buried myself in paperwork again, cursing the impulse that had made me open my mouth and vowing never to do so again. Sempai had other ideas, though.

"Like Gai, huh," he mused, "That's not quite how I would have put it, Tenzou, but I'll admit he has some admirable qualities." He then calmly proceeded to give me a short lecture on Gai's flaws and virtues. I couldn't imagine what he was trying to accomplish until he closed his description with, "So. Now that you have a better idea of who we're dealing with, what do you think of Takahane and his team as the second squad?"

Still embarrassed and wishing to be left alone with my paperwork, I made no answer.

Sempai waited for about a minute before saying, "Too late, Tenzou, you've tipped your hand. I know you've got an opinion, so out with it, please."

I was somewhat alarmed by that, but remained silent in the hopes that he would give up, after all. He didn't. He kept badgering me, quietly but persistently, until I finally caved. I was feeling rather harassed by then, however, and snapped out my opinion of Takahane and his squad with more pique, and _much_ more honesty than I had intended. Sempai was surprised again, but recovered quickly. He chuckled and told me he agreed completely before reading off the next squad on his list and looking at me expectantly. I was still a little annoyed with him for pressing me, but making Sempai laugh had felt surprisingly… _good_, and the temptation to do it again was too great. By the end of the evening, he'd managed to extort my opinion of every squad on the list, and finally chosen from one of the two I'd approved of.

"Thanks, Tenzou. That was a great help." He smiled. "Now just one more question. What do you think of Tawamu and Kannagiyama?"

I'd actually been enjoying myself quite a bit, but when he asked that question I sobered instantly. I had always thought that Sempai got along well with the other members of our team, and I suddenly felt like I was in a dangerous situation. I was afraid to answer truthfully, but I didn't want him to catch me in a lie, either. When he prompted me to answer again, and I said stiffly, "I don't think they're bad people."

He regarded me with the same bland smile for a few moments before saying, "But you don't like them."

I frowned, and looked away. "I didn't say that."

Sempai leaned down to where I was sitting on the floor and rested a hand on my shoulder. Again, he waited out my conditioned response. "They're _not_ bad people, Tenzou, just people. So don't be too hard on them, OK? Try talking to them the way you talked to me tonight, and I'm willing to bet things will start going a lot more smoothly."

All I could do was sit there, staring at the floor. He'd never given the slightest hint, before, that he'd noticed I wasn't fitting in the rest of the team, and now that I knew he'd been watching, I was torn between embarrassment that he'd seen me so weak, and gratitude for his kindness.

Finally, I took refuge in the stack of paperwork, which had fallen by the wayside while I'd been talking to Sempai. "It'll take half the night to finish all this," I grumbled, not really minding, but finding it easier to be gruff in that situation. I heard a soft chuckle from Sempai, and when I snuck a glance at him out of the corner of my eye, found him watching me work with a smile.

I didn't look up again until I'd put the finishing touches on the mission report. By then it was long past midnight, and Sempai had fallen asleep on the couch. I leaned closer to him, but before I could make up my mind whether to wake him up or just let myself out of his apartment, I was distracted. I'd never had a chance to really, really_ look_ at Sempai before. Now that he was lying half curled on the couch before me, bathed in the soft, warm light of the lamp, I couldn't _stop_ looking. To call him beautiful would have been to merely scratch the surface. Of course he was physically beautiful; somewhere in my head I'd already known that Sempai was good looking. But there was more to it than that. Even asleep, every line of his face and body seemed to exude rich, whimsical personality. When he was awake, though, there was something about him that made him seem very… distant; untouchable, despite all the casual touches _he_ bestowed. You didn't dare go to him, you just had to hope he'd come to you in whatever small way he was willing to. Now that he was asleep, however, there was nothing to stop me from getting as close as I wanted. And I suddenly wanted to get _very_ close. I wanted to climb up onto the couch with Sempai and fit myself so tightly together with him that there was _no_ space left between us.

But even I, sheltered though I was, knew that couldn't go well. Inviting as he might look, the moment I touched him, he'd wake, and the spell would be broken. So I peeled my eyes away, and contented myself with curling up on the floor beside his sofa and listening to the soft, slightly muffled sounds of his breathing.

From that day on, I spent every moment I could with Sempai. Through my time with him, I gradually learned how to get along with my other squad mates, too, but I didn't care about that anymore. As long as I could be with Sempai, I was happy, because without the slightest Idea what love was, I'd fallen for Sempai completely.

Looking back, I'm ashamed of how I openly I clung to Sempai over the following few months, but at the time I was deliriously and obliviously happy. I was even satisfied with Sempai's passive acceptance of my adoration. I was thinking only about how_ I_ felt, and it never occurred to me to worry about what other people thought of me, or even really what _Sempai_ thought of me.

And then my Eden was stolen away by Tawamu, Kannagiyama, and their damned dog-collar gag.

Our usual gathering place for away-missions was a little clearing about a mile outside Konoha. That particular morning, I'd been running an errand for Sempai and arrived a little behind the others. I was just about to step out of the shadows of the trees when I heard Tawamu call out to Sempai, saying he'd gotten a gift for his new ninken. I'd paused just within the shadows of the trees to wonder when Sempai had gotten a new dog, and therefore remained unobserved while the scene unfolded before me.

At first, Sempai merely made a non-committal noise and went on reading his book, but when Tawamu held something out to him, he had to take it. Absently, he glanced over the object in his hand. Then he froze, his eye opening wide with surprise. Several seconds ticked by before he recovered himself. He passed the object back to Tawamu, frowning slightly.

Tawamu grinned. "What, you don't want it? You sure?"

"Thanks, I'm sure," Sempai answered with a gravity that was completely at odds with the jovial mood of his companion.

"Aw, that's a shame," Tawamu laughed as he walked away. "I think it'd look very fetching on him."

Kannagiyama had been watching from the other side of the clearing, trying to stifle her laughter. As Tawamu sauntered back to her, she took her hand away from her mouth. "I don't think he liked your gift much."

Tawamu shrugged, still grinning. "Can't think why. But… maybe he'd accept it if it came straight from the person in question? Whadya think, should we test it out when he gets here?"

Kannagiyama choked on her laughter, and stared at him with an expression verging on horror. "Stop it." She said, finally, "That's going too far, Tawamu. The kid won't think it's funny."

Tawamu cocked his head. "I dunno, I think his sense of humor has gotten worlds better, lately. Haven't you heard him? Never would have thought it to begin with, but the kid's a regular comedian. Besides. Kakashi didn't think it was funny, either. Did you see his face?"

Kannagiyama shook her head. "Whether or not he's got a sense of humor is beside the point. The kid's really in love, Tawamu. You'll _hurt_ him. Kakashi's a completely different story. You couldn't touch that boy's heart with a ten foot pole."

Tawamu looked at the object in his hand. "So no, huh? And after I went to the trouble of getting it engraved…"

"_No_," Kannagiyama insisted. "Here. I'm taking that away from you so you can't get into any more mischief." She snatched the object from his palm and tossed it into the underbrush. Then, as if to reinforce the idea that the joking was at an end, she pulled her ANBU mask down over her face, and turned away.

I had, by this point, the uncomfortable feeling that all this had something to do with _me_. I was the last person expected to arrive before we set off, and therefore the only person Tawamu could have been referring to when he asked if they should "test it out when he gets here." But if that was the case, what had they meant by saying I was in love? I didn't understand, at first. I'd never put a name to my feelings for Sempai before. Did Kannagiyama think I was in love with Sempai? _Was_ I in love with Sempai? The way my heart tried to take off from inside my chest and soar into the sky at the idea gave me a fairly clear answer to the last question. For a few moments, I reveled in the knowledge. But then… what had Kannagiyama meant when she said that you couldn't touch Sempai's heart with a ten foot pole? That didn't sound encouraging, and neither was Sempai's grave look in response to whatever joke Tawamu had pulled.

The first thing was to find out exactly what the joke had been. I'd seen where the object had landed, so I quietly sent out a root to retrieve it. A collar—a _dog_ collar, from the tacky bone-shaped tag—with my name carved on it. So_ I_ was Sempai's new dog. Kannagiyama had been right. It did hurt. But not that much. It was embarrassing to see how my behavior had looked through my teammates' eyes, and I was angry that instead of warning me that I was acting foolish, they chose to play this stupid prank, and on _Sempai_. But Kannagiyama was wrong about that part of it. I wouldn't have minded nearly as much if they'd just played their trick on me, and kept Sempai in the dark, because ultimately the only thing I really cared about was how Sempai would react. Maybe Sempai had known all along that I was in love with him, and had let me stay by him anyway. With that possibility there was hope, at the very least that Sempai didn't mind me being in love with him, and maybe even that he might feel something like that for me, too. If he _hadn't_ known, though, and if he _did_ mind…

For the rest of the mission, I watched Sempai closely. The casual observer probably wouldn't have noticed anything different about him, but I'd gotten to know him pretty well by then. I could tell something was bothering him just from the way he moved, and since the mission was a walk in the park, I was fairly certain it was Tawamu's joke. By the time we reached home again, there was no doubt in my mind that he hadn't realized, until Tawamu pointed it out, that my behavior was abnormal. I still couldn't really tell, however, what he thought of it. We picked up the paperwork for the mission report as usual, and he made no move to stop me from following him back to his apartment. That gave me a little hope, but it soon faded. He barely looked at me or spoke to me all evening. It didn't seem as if he was deliberately avoiding me; there was nothing like shyness, embarrassment, or even repulsion in the way he was acting. It was more like he had some difficult and unpleasant problem occupying his mind, and couldn't be bothered to notice that I was there.

I was crushed.

I was also furious. I couldn't really pick out anything concrete that Sempai had done wrong, but his reaction _felt_ like a betrayal. He'd been the first person to take the time to get to know me, the first person to take an interest in what I was thinking or feeling, the first person who actually seemed to appreciate having me around. He'd given me a safe place to learn how to be a proper human being. And the moment he realized I loved him for it, he backed out. I _still _think Sempai wasn't entirely free of blame. I don't mean to say he should have loved me. Even in my pain and anger, I had known that was unfair. Allowing me to get as close to him as I did, though: that _was_ a mistake on his part. I was just a fourteen year old kid who had been raised in a bubble. There was no way_ I_ could have known better, but Sempai was four years older, and in no way naïve. He could have, and should have, paid more attention to what he was doing and the effect it was having on me. It wasn't as though I was being _subtle_. As I found out later, _everyone_ in ANBU knew that I was head over heels in love with Sempai. The only two who failed to notice, were Sempai and me.

Whether or not Sempai did anything wrong, it took me quite some time to forgive him for it. Naturally, as soon as I realized my affection was unwanted, I stopped sticking to Sempai like a limpet. That could have been as much for his benefit as mine, but I didn't stop there. I wanted to punish him. He'd get no more favors from me. The bastard could do his own damn paper work, and while I would continue to obey orders as his subordinate, there was no reason I had to be particularly pleasant about it. I made my manner to him as cold and distant as I possibly could without actually sabotaging our group so thoroughly that we couldn't perform our duty (even in extremity, I was a good little ANBU). That state of affairs lasted for months. I began to waver almost immediately, really, but as soon as I began to look for signs that I could creep back into at least some semblance of closeness with him, I noticed that he didn't seem to be missing me in the least. That poured quite a bit of fuel on the fire of my resentment, because_ I_ most definitely missed _him_.

But my anger and resentment did eventually fade. Sempai's indifference never changed, his indifference never stopped hurting, and perhaps it's not even accurate to say that I ever really forgave him for any of that. I simply came to realize that Sempai had taken root at the center of my life, and I couldn't weed him out. Although… he was, at least, no longer the _only_ thing in my life. I had been prepared to fall back into total isolation, but that never happened. While I wasn't looking, I'd become properly socialized. I'd even become rather adept, ironically, at entertaining my peers with _jokes_. To their credit, they seemed perfectly willing to forget how much they'd disliked me at first, and it was surprisingly easy to carve out a niche for myself. I could preserve myself, at least, from the comprehensive loneliness I'd felt on first joining my squad. But I never got close. I could go through the motions of being part of the group, and I could even enjoy it, but I couldn't feel the same connection to them that I had to Sempai. Flawed as he was, no one could compare to him. No one could interest me the way he could. I'd been _happy_ with him, after all, and what could ever top that? I couldn't stay angry with him, and after a year of getting to know my world a little bit better, I began to realize that he was irrevocably the most important person to me in it.

I was cautious about showing it, this time. That much I'd learned. It had been a long time since I'd been able to muster coldness towards Sempai, but now I gradually began to talk to him the same way I talked to everyone else. I hoped that it would put him at ease; disguise the fact that he was still special to me. It worked, but there were glimmers of wariness at first, so I was careful to keep my distance and move slowly.

I never did manage to win back the same kind of closeness, but I came to know Sempai better than I ever had while I was still glued to his side. It started with a comment from the person I've come to think of as my second real friend, though we only spoke once. One day, while I was sitting in the lounge with a group of off duty ANBU, I caught sight of Sempai passing through with a stack of papers under his arm. I could see him, instantly, sitting on the couch in his apartment, elbows propped on his knees as he leaned over to scan the papers strewn over the coffee table. I ached to see it for real. And why not? Couldn't a kouhai help his sempai do some paperwork without it being a declaration of love? I'd half risen from my seat, but Sempai didn't so much as glance in my direction. I sank back down.

"So, you still haven't given up," someone commented from behind me. Startled, I twisted around. There was a purple-haired ANBU leaning on the back of the couch. I recognized the hair, but I didn't know her either by name or code-name. That was the first time we'd ever spoken, and I was annoyed that, not only did she seem to know the old story of my infatuation with Sempai, she also seemed to have seen through my feelings now.

"I don't know what you're talking about." A silly thing to have said, since we both knew I did.

"I should warn you, you're probably wasting your time. It's nothing personal, if that makes you feel any better. Kakashi doesn't let _anyone_ get close, and believe me, there're plenty of failed attempts as evidence. We were all surprised you got as far as you did. But… I don't think he'll change his mind, even for you." She turned her head in the direction of the door Sempai had just gone out of. "And who knows? Maybe he's right, and I'll wish I'd done things his way, someday."

I hesitated for a moment, resenting the intrusion of a stranger into what was clearly not her business, but wanting to know more. Her words dredged up the memory of Kannagiyama saying something similar. "I don't understand. What's he right about? What's his 'way?'"

It was her turn to hesitate. "Tenzou… I knew one of the ANBU who used to take care of you, so I know a little bit about you. You've never lost someone you really cared about, have you." True, of course, since before Sempai, I hadn't had such a person to lose. "That's pretty rare, in ANBU. We've all lost people we love. That includes Kakashi. You know that he visits the KIA stone almost every day?"

I did. I'd tagged along on his visits more than once.

"So you know how much what happened to Obito affected him."

It had never occurred to me to ask Sempai why he visited the stone. He always seemed to be just as cheerful after his few moments alone with the rock as he was before, but… could I have completely misunderstood him all that time? And I didn't like the sound of this Obito person at all.

The purple haired ANBU was surprised when I asked her to explain.

"Then do you know how his father died?"

I could only shake my head, feeling foolish. It had begun to dawn on me that I didn't actually know much of anything about Sempai.

The ANBU sighed. "Well if you don't plan on giving up, then you should know at least that much about the man you're supposed to be in love with."

Then a suspicion darted through my mind. "Were you one of the people that tried to get close to him?" As soon as I said it, I realized that I shouldn't have, but my own interest in this strange person had taken me by surprise.

There was a soft coughing sound from behind both of us, and we turned to look. There was a young male ANBU standing there, apparently waiting. At first I thought the cough had been to alert us to his presence, but then he just kept on coughing. It wasn't violent, but it sounded moist and sickly.

The purple haired ANBU straightened up from where she was leaning on the back of the couch, and turned her body so that she was including the new-comer in the conversation, too. Her face was turned towards _him _as she answered, "Not the way you're thinking, Tenzou. I would have been Kakashi's friend, if he'd wanted one, but my _love_ is already spoken for. "

The other ANBU, who had finally finished coughing, took a step toward her. "We've been given a mission. Are you ready to go?"

"Just one more thing," she told him with a smile in her voice. She turned back to me. "I'm afraid I can't stay to tell you the story myself, but ask around. I doubt it will get you anywhere, but you should know, anyway. Good luck." Then she was walking away, side by side with the young ANBU who'd come to get her.

I did ask around. Surreptitiously of course, so it took me quite a while to put together the whole story from the little scraps and pieces of information people dropped. And I didn't keep just to the things the purple-haired ANBU had mentioned. Anything anyone would tell me, I absorbed gratefully. The ANBU had shocked me with my own ignorance—or to put it more accurately, my own self absorption. I'd been too busy trying to figure out who _I_ was, and what_ I_ needed, to think about who Sempai was outside the role he played in my life. It would have been strange if he _had_ loved a brat like me.

So now I put myself into finding out as much as I could about him and trying to understand him. In the process I fell more deeply in love with him than ever. He'd had a father who he admired and loved, who was at the center of his world, and even though I'd never known a parent like that, I thought I could understand at least a little. Wasn't that what Sempai was to me? And when I imagined what it must have been like for that father to commit the ultimate betrayal; to abandon his responsibility to his son, to leave him alone in shame, to tell his son, when it came down to it, that he hadn't been good enough to stay alive for… Well, I _couldn't_ really imagine it. All I knew was that compared to that, the pain of what I'd been thinking of as Sempai's "betrayal" was nothing at all.

No surprise, therefore, that Sempai didn't come through that experience unscathed. By all accounts he had been stubborn and proud before his father's death, but afterwards he took those traits to an extreme. He became absolutely inflexible, putting the shinobi code above everything else. Maybe, as he'd been heard to say, he'd come to believe that was the only right way to act because he'd seen the consequences of putting the individual above the rule, both for his father and for the people who died because of his father's failure to complete his mission. Maybe the only way he could convince himself that it was OK for his father to be gone was to discredit him and his values. Maybe he simply had to be inflexible to keep from folding under the pain of his loss. Maybe it was all of that, or maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever the reason, he bound himself to a code that I can't imagine ever really fit him. The Sempai I know is _not_ someone to whom following rules comes easily, and from what I've heard, even as Sempai was insisting on following the letter of the law, his headstrong nature was constantly leading him to break the spirit of it.

He must have chafed under his self imposed doctrine of absolute adherence to the code, and that must have made Obito—who, like Sempai's father, treated rules as conditional—almost unbearable to him. As long as he held on to his burden, that is. I've never been able to reconstruct a clear picture of what happened between Obito and Sempai on their last mission together, but somehow Obito must have convinced Sempai to let go of his code and return to the values his father had taught him as a child. I've heard that Obito saved Sempai's life during that mission, but I think he probably saved Sempai from himself, as well. And I could be wrong, but I suspect that Sempai loved him for it.

Then Obito _died_, and this time there was nothing to make his loss seem less of an evil. Whatever had gone before, Obito died Sempai's friend. There was no betrayal. On the contrary, Obito's last act was one of unspeakable generosity. He gave up his life for Sempai, and then he completed the gift with his precious sharingan. So Sempai responded by remaking himself again, this time in the image of the one he'd lost rather than his opposite. Perhaps I'm biased because that was the Sempai that I met and fell in love with, but I think his adopted humanitarianism was a much better fit. Sempai 's certainly not the intuitive, emotional type, but I believe he genuinely cares about people. Obito may have shown him how to care effectively, but a mind capable of compassion isn't something that can be copied. I think Sempai as he became in the wake of Obito's death was probably much truer to himself than Sempai as he was after the death of his father.

That isn't to say there was no damage, though.

I couldn't see it at first. Kannagiyama had said Sempai had a heart that couldn't be touched with a ten foot pole. The purple-haired ANBU had used somewhat more sympathetic language, but the meaning had been essentially the same. Maybe Sempai could have been described that way before Obito's death, but the man I knew cared so much for the people around him that he would do _anything_, including die, to protect them. Where was the heartlessness in that? What did they want from him, a warm cuddly attitude?

Kannagiyama was the one who finally showed me what she'd meant. Inadvertently, by dying.

It was a surprise attack. Two countries between the borders of the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth were hovering dangerously close to the edge of war, and fearing that the conflict between these two small nations would spark a larger conflict between Earth and Fire, maybe even another shinobi world war, both Fire and Earth put pressure on the two countries to accept a negotiated peace. Terms were finally arrived at, but they weren't popular. There were factions in both countries that felt the concessions they were being forced to make were unacceptable. A messenger from the country tied more closely to Konoha had come to us requesting that we guard their diplomat on his way to the conference where he would formally enter into the treaty. Even if no one from the other country attacked, the messenger explained, his own people surely would.

We just didn't expect the attacks to come from within the messenger's own entourage, and before we even reached his country.

Tawamu, never one to be serious when the alternative was at all possible, had quickly made friends out of all the messenger's guards. He and Kannagiyama walked with them, laughing and joking as we hiked through the forest toward the Land of Fire's northern border. Tawamu was relaxed, having fun, and completely off his guard. The man closest to him said something that Tawamu must have found particularly funny. He threw back his head and laughed uproariously, and as he did, a blade appeared in the jokester's hand and flashed towards Tawamu's side.

Tawamu didn't see it, but Kannagiyama did. All she had time to do, though, was put herself between Tamamu and his attacker. The thrust punched straight through the heavy padding of her ANBU vest, and the blade slipped between her ribs and disappeared so far into her body that the hilt rammed against her chest and shoved her back into Tawamu. Startled, not understanding what was going on, he scrambled to catch her. The guard wrenched his blade free, and while Tawamu's hands were still occupied with his teammate, he made a second pass. Again, Kannagiyama stopped him, catching the blade in her bare hand, not seeming to even notice as it sliced her fingers to the bone. She caught the attacker's arm with her free hand, pushed away from Tawamu, and clinging fiercely to her opponent, dragged his arm and blade down with her as she fell. By this time Tawamu had understood the situation, and before another moment had passed, he'd slit the guard's throat. The guard hadn't been acting on his own, though. Almost immediately after the attack on Tawamu began, several of the others had their blades out and were attacking Sempai and me as well. It didn't take long to dispose of them. They weren't anywhere near a match for us, but by the time we could turn our attention to Kannagiyama, she had already reached the limits of her life. In the sudden silence after the last rebel had fallen, there was a rushing noise that settled quickly into a busy crackling as the blue fire of the self-immolation jutsu swept over Kannagiyama's body and began to consume it.

Tawamu let out a strangled groan and lunged for the burning body. Who knows what was going through his head. Kannagiyama was already dead, and if he'd touched that flame he would have died too, or at least been horribly injured, but still he stretched out his arms as if to gather her body into them. It was Sempai who caught him and held him back, gently but firmly, until the flames went out and nothing but a pile of ashes and charred fragments of bone remained. All _I _could do was stand there and watch it all happen in a state of shocked numbness. My own feelings surprised me. It wasn't the first time I'd seen someone die. It wasn't even the first time I'd seen a fellow ANBU die, but apparently over the years of working together, Kannagiyama had become more important to me than I'd realized.

But I was even more surprised by _Tawamu's_ grief. I never would have imagined that Tawamu, who was able to laugh at even the most dire situations, could be so devastated. When the fire had gone out and Sempai relaxed his grip, Tawamu went limp and Sempai had to hastily catch hold of him again and guide him to the ground. He crouched there next to Tawamu, supporting his shoulders as the older man sat slumped forward, staring at the grey smudges of Kannagiyama on the forest floor. It was a very strange and frightening thing to see the untamable Tawamu broken so badly that he had to be supported by someone decades less experienced in such things than himself.

The messenger and the loyal members of his guard had been hovering, uncertainly, at a distance. Now the messenger approached Sempai and spoke to him. Sempai listened, and nodded. He turned his head and murmured something in Tawamu's ear. Then he let go of him. He waited a moment, but Tawamu remained upright, and Sempai got to his feet. He came over to me, then.

"Are you alright, Tenzou?" he asked, but I couldn't answer at first. I still felt numb; adrift with no connection to my own body.

Sempai gave me time, but when I still said nothing, he shifted and reached up to scratch the back of his head. Then, after a moment's thought, he pulled his mask away from his face. That got my attention, but I was too sluggish to stop him when he reached over and pushed back my mask, too.

"Look at me, Tenzou. Are you alright?" he asked again. I looked him in the face, and realized that he, at least, _was_ alright. He'd known Kannagiyama longer than me, had certainly seemed to care about her quite a lot more than I had, and he was much younger and more inexperienced than Tawamu, but somehow he'd taken her death completely in his stride, while the two of us were floundering. I could see the pain and regret in the tightness of the muscles of his face, but he was unmistakably OK.

I wasn't really sure what to make of that, but at least it had distracted me enough to get me back in control of myself. I nodded to him and slipped my mask back over my face.

"Good." There was some relief in Sempai's voice, some of the tension left his face, and his eye curved in a smile. He gave my shoulder a brisk pat and a squeeze before he pulled his own mask down. "I'm going to send Tawamu back to Konoha to inform them of the change in the situation and ask for reinforcements. I'd like you to go with him." Meaning Sempai wanted to get Tawamu home as quickly as possible, and was worried about letting him go alone in his current state. _That_ was the Sempai I knew.

I started to nod, and then stopped abruptly. "Just a minute. What are _you_ going to be doing, Sempai?"

He cocked his head as if he thought the answer should have been obvious. "Someone's got to go ahead to watch over the diplomat as soon as possible. Clearly the situation is even more dangerous than we thought. He might be attacked before he even sets out on his journey."

That was the moment that I first began to understand how terrible the fear of losing someone could be. Kannagiyama had just died, and that was bad enough, but if _Sempai_ were to be killed… that was unthinkable. Instead of nodding, I shook my head, horrified.

Sempai, who had stiffened and reared back slightly in surprise at my refusal, settled in to wait silently for an explanation. I gathered my thoughts, and my memories of how I used to talk to him when we were at our closest. Now was not the time to mince words.

"That's an absurd plan, Sempai. Didn't you just say yourself that the situation is more dangerous than we thought? Those guards were trust-worthy men, hand-picked for this mission. If they went renegade, then there's no telling who else will. Or even worse, someone higher up might have put them there _deliberately_ and planned the whole thing. There won't be any safe place or any safe person from start to finish on this mission. It's too dangerous for one person to handle all that alone!"

Sempai shrugged. "Can't be helped. I don't really want the blame for the Fourth Shinobi World War to fall at my feet, you know."

I knew he didn't, and I knew that his father's past gave the situation even more weight to him. "Fine. Take me with you then. It won't be nearly so dangerous if you have someone there to watch your back."

It was Sempai's turn to shake his head. "I need you to go with Ta…"

"Send Pakkun to ask for reinforcements." While we'd been talking, Tawamu had come up to us un-noticed. We both looked at him with a mixture of surprise and apprehension. His shoulders were still a little bowed, and he was no longer radiating the impish energy that always made him seem ten years, and mentally maybe closer to twenty years, younger than his actual forty-two. Still, he was standing up on his own two feet. "You're a hundred years too early to try and send me home in the middle of a mission, kid." It was an attempt at a joke, but it came out grim and bitter. "I'm ANBU, Kakashi. I'll see the mission through."

Kakashi examined Tawamu long and hard, but Tawamu didn't waver, and he finally nodded. He must have known as well as I did that he really needed as much of his team as he could get for this mission. There was a real possibility that the unrest over the treaty terms could blow up into a full out civil war, and even Sempai couldn't hold off half a country single handedly.

Tawamu did finish out the mission with us, but he was far from OK. His mind wouldn't focus on the task at hand, and he made more mistakes than usual. Sempai transferred most of Tawamu's responsibilities to himself, and took as good care of his heart-broken subordinate's feelings as was humanly possible under the circumstances. He cared for Tawamu the way he cared for everyone, including Kannagiyama, until she'd died and it was no longer necessary. He cared for people, I realized, as individuals with lives and futures that were worth protecting, but not as important pieces of _his own_ life. He loved people, but not in the way that Tawamu had loved Kannagiyama, or the way that Kannagiyama had loved Tawamu. Or the way that I loved him. He was kind and caring, but it was just as Kannagiyama had said. None of that was allowed to compromise his core.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this is what I've come to believe: Sempai was shattered, _twice_, by the loss of people who were close to him. This time, he's organized his life in such a way that he can never be so thoroughly shaken again.

And maybe he's right. As shinobi, we lead incredibly dangerous lives. Maybe, when it's almost guaranteed that you and everyone around you will die an untimely, and probably unpleasant, death, the only rational course of action is to keep your distance. But at times like this, lying on the floor by Sempai's bunk, listening to the sound of his breathing, and remembering a time when we were closer, I can't quite believe that.

…..

And there was actually _more_ I wanted to put in there, but I finally had throw up my hands and say "Enough, already!" Or actually more like "Too much, already!" Anyway, I think that's it for long reminiscences. Next chapter is back to the plot.


	10. Chapter 10

Hello, sorry for the really, really long wait. Since it's been 3 or 4 months (or more?) since something happened plot-wise, perhaps I'd better give a re-cap: Team Kakashi is going to a village in the Land of Typhoon, an Island between the Land of Fire and the Land of Water, to investigate a rash of disappearances. There is a theory among some of the residents that the disappearances are linked to an old abandoned shrine near the village, but the headman is not convinced. What he does know, is that the disappearances began shortly after a stranger matching Kabuto's description was seen in the village. On their journey to the village, Team Kakashi has uncovered further evidence of Kabuto's involvement, or at least that he is also headed toward the Land of Typhoon. He is one week ahead of them, but with the help of Captain Nami and his crew, they hope to take a short cut across the sea and catch up.

…..

_Tenzou_

…..

I do eventually manage to snatch some sleep, but it doesn't last long. The crack of dawn finds our team in a rowboat with the ship's captain and a few crew members, headed for shore. We've reached the Southernmost Island of the Land of Typhoon, and the ship is anchored in the deeper waters of a harbor between two arms of the mountain that forms the spine of the island. The light is still weak and there's fog on the water, but even so I can see the wooden piles of a wharf reaching out to us from the beach. Behind, a village straggles up the steep, forested slope of the mountain. This is it. Our destination. This is the town that requested our help finding the perpetrator of the disappearances. I can only hope we're not too late.

With every stroke of the ores, the frown on Captain Nami's face is growing deeper. It's really not helping with the state of my nerves, and finally I have to give in and ask him what's wrong.

"Too quiet," he says, keeping his own powerful voice quiet, likewise. The effect is a low, ominous rumble that only adds to the sense of danger. "This time of year, on a day like this, the pearl divers and fishermen should already be out by the dozens. But look. The boats are all tied up at the wharf. The beach is deserted. There are no fish on the drying racks. It's as if a typhoon were about to hit, but there's no sign of one coming up. I don't like it."

Sempai's caught the exchange, and our eyes meet. He shrugs. We already knew there was trouble in this village. That's why they called us here.

Sempai leans a little closer to us. "Captain. You're familiar with the town; do you know where we could find the headman? It looks like there's going to be a shortage of local guides…"

The captain nods. "Certainly. I need to see him, myself. Truth be told I'm surprised the headman hasn't come out on the wharf to meet us. That's another thing I don't like. A watch is kept for ships, and he's usually very conscientious about greeting them. I fear that something may have happened to him, but I know a few places we can look."

The boat glides into an empty space on the wharf, and bumps gently into a pile. One of the crew scrambles out with a rope and ties up. We all climb out after him, and the captain sets out immediately at a brisk pace. We follow him up the beach toward the village.

The fringe of the forest is broken by greying wooden buildings and the paths that run between them. As the captain leads us up one of these, I catch a glimpse of something moving in the shadows of a shack. Instantly, I'm ready to attack. So is Sai, with a hand on his blade, and Sakura, with her fists clenched. Sempai's still got his hands in his pockets, but he's stopped walking, and is observing the shack narrowly. Naruto and the sailors tramp on up the path for a few seconds before they realize the rest of us aren't moving. Then they stop, too. The sailors draw together nervously. Naruto, on the other hand, comes charging back to us, and searches frantically for whatever it was that caught our attention. Finding nothing, he shouts out a challenge.

"Kabuto? You're there, aren't you, you bastard! Stop sneaking around and…" A bush by the corner of the shack rustles, and Naruto dives into it head first. For a moment all we can see of the struggle is the violently shaking branches of the bush, and a shower of falling leaves. Then Naruto and his quarry tumble out of the bush and into view. Naruto shoots back to his feet, and stands panting over his catch…

…Which is definitely not Kabuto. If I had to guess, I'd say it's one of the local kids; a gangly little girl with heavily tanned skin, short and rather unkempt black hair, and bare feet. She looks almost feral but for her dress, which looks fairly new. If crumpled.

Naruto, by this time, has realized his mistake. He's screwed up his eyes, and is peering down at the kid, who's picking herself up and brushing the dust from her dress with remarkable composure for someone who's just been tackled by a ninja. Naruto finally gives vent to his disappointment. "…Who the hell is this pipsqueak, eh?"

The kid, who has just been contorting herself in an effort to see whether she's been successful in the effort to clean off her butt, unwinds to level a withering look at Naruto. "Umiko is not a _pipsqueak_! Umiko is the _Headman's_ _granddaughter_."

Naruto is understandably surprised. "Oh… My bad, um, Umiko-chan… But what's the headman's granddaughter doing, hiding in a bush?"

"Umiko's the Headman's granddaughter. Umiko can hide in a bush if she wants to."

Feeling that this conversation has gone far enough, I intervene. "Umiko-chan," I say ingratiatingly, "We're really glad to have… run into you. We were actually just on our way to go see your grandfather. I don't suppose you could tell us where he is?"

Umiko turns her supercilious gaze on me, raises an eyebrow and, clearly unimpressed (of all the nerve), moves on to look over the rest of the group. She sees Captain Nami and seems to recognize him. She saunters in his direction. Half way there, though, she catches sight of Sempai. She stops dead in her tracks, and stares up at him. He looks down at her with a bemused expression on his face.

"You have silver hair." The girl observes sagely.

"Aa…" Sempai answers not-so-sagely.

"Are you the demon who steals people away?"

Sempai raises an eyebrow. "No…"

The girl shrugs her shoulders. "Too bad. If it was you, Umiko wouldn't mind being stolen."

That's the last straw. Bad enough that this little uppity brat dares to be unimpressed by my masculine charm, but to flirt with Sempai in such a_ shameless_ manner… And does she have to refer to herself in the third person?

I realize that Sempai is regarding me with an expression of great amusement over the brat's head. I unclench first my fists, and then my jaw, and try to remind myself that this is just a pre-pubescent girl we're talking about, here.

Relax. Count to ten, and breathe.

Having thus put the situation in perspective, I'm at liberty to actually think about what the girl has just said. _"You have silver hair. Are you the demon who steals people away?"_ Could she actually be talking about _Kabuto_?

"Umiko-chan, where did you hear about the silver-haired demon who steals people?"

The brat looks blankly over her shoulder at me. "Oh," she says. "Is that oji-san talking to Umiko?"

More counting is necessary, I find. Sempai, now positively grinning under his mask, re-voices my question. "My friend was wondering where you heard about this demon."

"Oh, _everyone _knows about _that_. Grandpa says it's not a demon, but Umiko heard the fishermen's wives talking about it, and they all say the god of the old temple sent the silver-haired demon to take re… rebenge."

Rebenge… "Revenge?" I ask. The brat doesn't even deign to look at me this time.

"Revenge?" Sempai repeats.

"That's what Umiko said. Rebenge."

"Can you tell us what the god is taking revenge for?" he presses further.

The brat gives a careless shrug. "Umiko doesn't know. Umiko doesn't care about the god. Or this rebenge thing. He can have it, if he wants it."

Captain Nami has made his way over to Sempai and the girl. "Umiko-chan, you remember me don't you?"

"Of course Umiko remembers." She pinches the fine, blue fabric of her skirt and stretches it out for the captain to see. "Captain Nami brought Umiko's dress in his ship."

"That's right. I want to see your Grandfather."

The girl turns to Sempai. "Do you want to see Grandpa, too?"

He smiles and nods. "Yes, I do indeed."

"Very well. Umiko will take you there." She scoops up his hand and starts dragging him off, up the path. I hurry after, trying not to grind my teeth.

The girl is remarkably spry, and the boat crew is actually short of breath by the time we reach our destination. The town is built on the side of a ridge, and the path takes us up a few rather long and steep flights of stairs. Finally, we reach the crest of the ridge. There's a clearing, here, occupied by a somewhat grander building than any of the ones we've passed on the way up. It's at least six times the size of the shack we saw down by the beach, and is surrounded on all four sides by a deep veranda. The roof is covered with layered cypress bark, rather than thatch. Our little guide drags Sempai right up to the veranda steps, barely giving him time to kick off his shoes before pulling him up after her. Just outside the doors to the house, she abruptly stops, drops his hand, and stands straight as a lance. "Umiko welcomes you to her house," she says with all the pomp of a queen, and executes a formal bow.

From inside the house, there's the clatter of something falling and the sound of running feet. The doors are thrown open from the inside, and a woman bursts into view. Her frantic eyes fix on the girl and she falls to her knees in the doorway.

"_Umiko_!" the woman exhales the word with great relief, and an equal amount of exasperation. She sweeps the girl into a tight hug, but then almost immediately draws back and, gripping her by the shoulders, gives her a little shake. "Where have you _been_," she demands, "I've been worried out of my mind!"

Umiko doesn't seem moved by the woman's violent show of concern. "Umiko saw a ship. Since Grampa's busy, Umiko went instead, and brought them."

"You what?" The woman looks up and notices Sempai standing passively by, no more than an arm's length away. Her eyes grow wide, and her grip on Umiko tightens.

"Wait, wait…" Sempai hastily raises his hands in the air in an effort to demonstrate harmless-ness. "Let me just start by saying that I'm not a demon. Or a kidnapper." The woman's eyes shoot wider still. It seems his direct approach has only added to her alarm.

Fortunately, the brat pipes up in Sempai's defense. "It's true, Mama. He's with Captain Nami." She points to the captain, who's standing with the rest of us at the base of the stairs. "Umiko made sure he wasn't a bad person before she brought him here." The woman, apparently the mother of this intolerable monster child, follows the pointing finger to Captain Nami, and relaxes a little.

"A-ah, Captain…" she says, definitely still a little shaky. "I'm so sorry about the shameful greeting you received. You are very welcome, as always, it's just that lately things have been…" She trails off, apparently unable to find a word that sufficiently conveys what she's been going through. She turns instead to Sempai. "Please except my apologies to you, too. Your hair… I'm afraid I thought…"

"Don't worry about it." Sempai smiles in an effort to put the woman at ease, and offers a hand to help her to her feet. "I've been getting that a lot lately. Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are ninja from Konoha, here to answer your headman's request."

"Oh!" She looks at Sempai a whole new level of attention. Her eyes fly over him eagerly, seeking out signs that her village's salvation is in good hands. Gradually, a certain_ look_ starts to come into her eyes. I've seen it so many times before, that I recognize it immediately. Now that this woman isn't worried that Sempai is a demon poised to snatch her baby—now that she knows he's an ally, not an enemy—she's beginning to realize that what she's got in front of her is a very attractive man.

There's no overt sign of a change. When she finishes her inspection she welcomes him with gratitude, but no improper familiarity. She actually takes a step back before bowing him into the house, and then turns to give her attention to Captain Nami and the rest of the party. She's probably not even fully aware of her own thoughts yet. It's just that I've watched women fall for Sempai so often that I can see the signs a mile off.

Once inside, we find ourselves in a fairly spacious room with a sunken hearth in the middle. There's a tray lying on the floor along with two fallen cups and a wet stain on the matting, probably the source of the clatter we heard earlier. The woman apologizes for the mess, and clears it hastily away before laying out cushions for all of us around the hearth. She puts a kettle of water on the fire, and then excuses herself, saying that she will inform the headman of our arrival. The brat seems ready to plop herself down on the floor by Sempai, but her mother takes her firmly by the arm and steers the child out of the room.

The woman is prompt about her errand, and we've only just gotten settled when she reappears and reports that the headman will see us immediately. The crew remain behind, but our team and Captain Nami get up and follow her deeper into the house. The room she brings us to is smaller than the one we were in before. A private room. At the far end, two men are already seated. One is a middle aged man with a weathered face and worn clothing. The other is an older man with a somewhat wispy beard, and thinning white hair swept back into a knot at the back of his head. His clothing, while simple, is of good quality and in good condition. On his nose is perched a pair of spectacles. Both men turn to look at us as we enter, and the older man swivels on his knees and bows to us.

"Welcome!" Even through the sand-papery rasp of the old man's voice, we can hear the feeling he puts into the word. "We are always happy to see Captain Nami, and you people of Konoha… you have no idea how glad we are to see _you_. Come sit, all of you." He gestures to the floor in front of him, and the woman hastens to lay out cushions for us. He lifts a hand to catch her attention. "Would you bring tea for everyone?" The woman nods, and disappears again.

As Sempai settles himself on one of the cushions, he asks, "Can you bring us up to speed on the situation here?"

The old man, manifestly the headman, nods grimly. "The news isn't good. Just last night we had another abduction." He gestures in the direction of the man sitting next to him, who regards us with glassy-eyed non-comprehension. "His wife went out to collect firewood, and never returned." He shakes his head. "When we couldn't find Umiko this morning, we feared the worse for her, too, though fortunately that was a false alarm."

"Isn't there a chance that this gentleman's wife will come back, too?" Not that a grown woman would pull the kind of stunts that _brat_ would…

"I fear not. Yoshio here spent all night searching through the town and the surrounding woods for her, and… this morning, he found one of her shoes. It's not likely it would have been left behind like that unless she was in trouble."

The headman goes on with details of who has been lost and when. One of the first to go missing was his own son: husband of the woman we met, and father of Umiko. Almost five months ago, he'd gone to give an offering to one of the subsidiary gods residing in the old shrine grounds. He'd never come back, and neither had anyone who went to search for him.

In the middle of this recitation, the woman returns with tea. She sets out a steaming cup for each of us, retreats to the side, and kneels. I'm closest to her, and keep an eye on her face. At first she focuses on her father-in-law, but gradually, her eyes begin to stray to Sempai. Finally, they rest on him completely. And in the middle of the story of her husband's disappearance, too. This woman needs to wake up and take a good look where she's headed.

"You must miss your husband terribly." I wince as soon as I've said it. I meant it to be a subtle reminder, but somehow the words came out harsh and sarcastic, and I can tell from the expression she's wearing that she's understood me all too clearly.

At first she's surprised, almost bewildered. Then a flush rises in her cheeks, and she glares daggers at me. "I do miss him," she shoots back in an icy undertone. For a beat we stare at each other. Then she shifts her gaze to the tea cup she's gripping in her lap. "But…" An edge of desperation creeps into her voice. "I've been waiting _so long_. I'm alone, afraid, and Umiko is so… difficult to manage. And I don't even know if he's _alive_." She stops, shakes her head, takes one glance at Sempai, and then turns her eyes back to her father-in-law. She raises her head and tilts up her chin. "But I really do miss him terribly."

"Oh." Is about all I can say. I'm not sure whether my interference was a good thing, or not. It certainly seems to have woken her up, but she probably would have done that on her own, eventually. And in the meantime, maybe she could have enjoyed a couple hours of harmless diversion from fear, worry, and hopeless waiting for someone who might not come back. Why did I do it, really? For her sake, or just because I didn't like her looking at Sempai like that? I groan internally. Perhaps I'm the one who needs to wake up. What happened to being content as just friends and co-workers?

Chastened, I turn my attention back where it belongs: on the headman. He's just reaching the end of his account of what happened in this town. "One hundred and three people; townsfolk, folk from neighboring villages, and visitors. All in the last five months. We're at our wits' end. This is practically a ghost town, now, and those of us who are left are afraid to leave their houses. They won't even go out to fish, and we're beginning to run low on food. Frankly if you people of Konoha can't catch whoever's responsible for this, it will be the end for this town."

"We'll certainly do our best," Sempai assures him. "Now… to start with, I'd like to take a look at this old shrine. People seem to think there's some sort of connection with what's going on."

"Not to mention, everyone who's tried to go there has disappeared. It's definitely suspicious," Sakura adds.

The headman looks a little disappointed. "The business about the temple is pure superstition. It's true that no one who tried to reach the shrine has come back, but the path there is long and secluded. People have disappeared on all the forest paths."

"Still," Sempai says with a placatory smile, "It's a place to start."

"It's _not_ just superstition! I saw him go there with my own eyes!" The exclamation comes from the man who was with the headman when we came in. It's the first time he's said anything, or exhibited any sign that he was even hearing our conversation. We all turn to stare at him. His fists are clenched on his lap. His head is down, and his shoulders are hunched, as if he's expecting a blow. His eyes are squeezed shut, and tears leek from the corners.

"What is this, Yoshio. Who's 'he?'"

"The silver haired demon!" Yoshio responds in a strangled voice. "I didn't tell you this, Headman, because I was ashamed, but I saw him. This morning, when I found Chika's shoe. I was searching around the forest, and I caught sight of a silver haired man climbing up to the top of the ridge. I followed him, and I saw him go down the old path to the shrine. I went up to the gate when he was gone, and that's where it was, the shoe, lying right in the middle of the path. They're at that shrine, my Chika and the silver haired demon, but… I was afraid to follow."

Sempai looks like a dog who's caught the scent. "How long ago did you see this man?"

"H-how long?" The man seems a little surprised at being spoken to. "Half an hour… maybe more…"

Sempai turns to the headman. His attitude is still superficially calm and carefree, but I can tell that he's switched gears to what passes for "hurrying" with him. He's now clearly focused on his goal, and getting to it with the least delay possible.

"Headman. You can rest assured that we're not acting under any kind of superstition. You originally requested help from Konoha because this silver haired "demon" matched the description of one of our missing-nin, yes? Well, we have reason to believe that you were correct. But even if he's no demon, and has no connection with the god, he may still be using the old shrine as a base of operations. In fact, an abandoned building that the local people view with superstitious fear would be the perfect place for someone who didn't want to be found."

The headman nods, grudgingly. "There is something in that…"

"And now, since this gentleman says he saw someone who looks like our missing-nin go down the shrine path just an half an hour ago, I think we'd better see if we can't catch up to him, eh?"

"Ah, yes. Of course. We are counting on you."

"Sooo… If you could give us some directions…"

"Yes, certainly. I'll take you to the head of the shrine path myself. It's not far." The headman starts to rise to his feet, and winces. The woman is instantly on her feet and by his side.

"No need, Father. I can show them."

"…Yes. That might be quicker," the headman admits, rather unhappily. He settles back to the floor. "Well then, people of Konoha, before you go, let me thank you for coming to our aid. I hope no harm comes to you because of us."

"No need to worry about that, at least," Kakashi assures the old man as he gets to his feet. "This is our problem, too. That _is_ why you went to Konoha for help, isn't it?"

The old man half smiles. "Well, yes. People always fight hardest when their own are interests are involved, so I thought. At any rate, that is what the years have taught me."

"We're shinobi. The interests of the client are our interests. But…" Sempai smiles somewhat mischievously. "You may not be entirely wrong. In any case you can be doubly sure we'll give it our all for this mission." With that, he gives a final nod to the headman, and turns to the woman. "Lead the way, ma'am."

Captain Nami stays behind to talk with the headman, but the rest of us follow the woman out of the house. She takes us back to the path we came up from the village on, and we continue to follow it for another hundred meters or so along the crest of the ridge. We stop in a small clearing. The well-worn path we've been on picks up again on the right side. To the left, a torii gate stands at the head of a second path. This path is overgrown; so much so that if it weren't for the gate, I would have mistaken it for an animal track. The gate itself has seen better days, too. I can tell from a few remaining flakes that it was once painted a vibrant red, but now the wood is mostly bare; grey with age, and tinged green with algae.

"This is the path to the shrine," the woman tells us.

"No wonder the villagers thought the god wanted revenge," Sempai comments. " If I were a god, and my worshippers treated me this shabbily, I would too."

The woman looks unconvinced. "If there ever was such a god, he's long gone. No one worships him here anymore. Some of the villagers, my late… my missing husband, for instance, still bring offerings to some of the minor gods that are thought to reside here, but no one has gone as far as the main shrine in a very long time."

"How lonely," Sakura murmurs.

The woman shrugs, and gets back to the business at hand. "The path leads down through a valley and up to the top of the next ridge. At the bottom of the valley, you'll cross a bridge over a river. After that, there are a couple of paths the branch off the main one, but I think you should be able to find your way to the main shrine without any trouble."

There's a rustling from the underbrush, and we all jump, but once again it's a false alarm. Out pops the brat. She saunters over to Sempai and takes his hand. "Of course they'll find the shrine. Umiko will lead them there," she pronounces.

"_Umiko_!" Not if the mother has anything to do with it, it seems. She advances on Umiko and tries to pull her away from Sempai, but the brat clings with impressive determination, dragging Sempai along with her. The woman has to give up, for fear of hurting him. "Umiko, let go this instant. Didn't I tell you not to leave the house? It's dangerous to be out on your own!"

"Umiko isn't alone. Umiko is with Kakashi."

"Even so, we wouldn't be able to guarantee your safety," Sai warns the girl.

"Umiko isn't afraid."

"Of course you aren't," Sakura leans down to the kid and smiles sweetly into her face. "But your mother would be a lot happier if you stayed here. You wouldn't want to worry her, now would you."

"Stay out it, ugly."

I can almost hear Sakura's temper snapping. Fortunately, Naruto manages to hold her back. "Maa, maa, Sakura-chan… Look, kid, we're in a hurry, so just be good and go back with your mom, eh?"

"Hmph! Umiko is not a kid!"

Sempai takes matters into his own hands. He kneels down to the brat's level. "Umiko, we appreciate your offer to guide us, but you have to let us take it from here."

She frowns at him a moment, then says, "Umiko's dad is at the shrine, isn't he? Umiko's going, too." She shoots a look at her mother. "Umiko doesn't believe he's dead."

Sempai is a little taken aback. So am I, actually. It never occurred to me that this brat might actually have a _reason_ for being so stubborn about this. I just figured she was being a brat.

It's Sakura who finds the right thing to say. She walks up to the kid with her hands on her hips and looks down her nose at her. The kid straightens her back and matches her stare. Sakura breaks into a smile. "You know, I think you might make a pretty decent kunoichi. For now, though, you're way out of your league, kid. Leave it to us, and if your father is alive, I promise you we'll bring him back to you."

The girl looks at Sakura suspiciously, but releases Sempai's hand. "Umiko doesn't need your opinion, or your promises."

"Yeah, yeah, well you have them anyway. Come on Sensei, shouldn't we be going?"

"Yes, well…" he steps back from the woman and her child, and gives a half wave. "Thanks for taking us this far..."

The woman nods, the child scowls, and we disappear down the narrow shrine path while we still can.

With Kabuto now over half an hour ahead of us, time is of the essence. We soon leave the path for the greater speed and freedom of the trees. The path is so faint that from up here it's practically impossible to pick out, but that's alright. We simply head straight for the bottom of the valley and the river.

Naruto, particularly, is in a hurry. He's starting to get that dangerously determined look on his face. If we don't find something, Naruto will be disappointed, but if we _do_ find something… you never know what he'll do. He's been fighting hard, I know, not to rely on the Kyuubi's power. It was a gambol to tell him what he'd done to Sakura in his cloaked state, but he reacted to it better than I could have hoped. I'm proud of him. Really, I am. But… there's always the chance that he'll slip, and if that happens, it'll be entirely up to me to control him.

"Uwah. What a face. No one's died yet, Tenzou."

Startled, I turn to look at Sempai. He's come up beside me, and is matching my pace as we leap from tree to tree. His eye curves in a smile and when the trajectories of our jumps momentarily bring us within reach of each other, he gives me a quick pat on the shoulder. "It'll be fine. Don't worry so much."

Sempai's relaxed air just adds to my worries. I can't help thinking that _he's_ not worrying _enough_. I know that's not his way; he plans as much as he can with the information he's got, and then he lets it go. He doesn't have to worry, because he can change his strategy to deal with problems as they come up. He's clever and keeps a level head.

At least he thinks he does. I'm not so sure. His brilliant solutions to unforeseen problems tend to land him in the hospital.

It's still fairly early in the morning, and when we reach the river we find fog so thick that we can barely see each other. We certainly can't see the bridge the path would have lead us to, and are forced to walk along the river to find it. Finally, we catch sight of another torii gate, much larger this time, rising above the mist on the opposite bank. We head for that spot, and sure enough, there's the bridge.

From here on out, we keep to the path, and move with watchful care. We could meet Kabuto at any time, and if possible, we'd like to be the ones to realize it first. There's no reason why Kabuto should even know that we're on his tail, yet. If we're careful, we might be able to take him by surprise. Actually, even leaving Kabuto aside, it's easy to imagine that there's some power here worth being wary of. Mist coils around the mossy trunks of the huge old trees, and the forest is pervaded by a deep stillness, almost as if it were one great sleeping creature. The path winds to and fro considerably on its way up the ridge, and now and again we catch sight of a great lichen spotted rock, or a particularly massive tree wound round with frayed straw rope, dark with age. There are a few decaying old buildings, too, half swallowed up by the underbrush. We pass the side paths we were warned about, and finally come to a great flight of stone steps. We scatter, and climb up alongside the stairs, under the cover of the trees. At the top stands yet another torii gate, and just beyond, a wooden fence enclosing a large rectangular building.

There's something very odd going on here. The fence is old, weatherworn, grey, and in a sad state of disrepair, just like the torii arches and the buildings in the forest. I'm pretty familiar with shrine architecture, and this looks like it ought to be the outer fence of a shrine compound. The rectangular building inside, however, is definitely not a shrine. Whatever it is, it's very new, and very shoddily constructed… with _absolutely_ no attention to aesthetics, I must note. It's literally just a giant box cobbled together out of plywood and sheets of corrugated steel. I wouldn't sink to building such a thing even if I was on my last ounce of chakra.

And then, to add to the mystery, there's a low hum of machinery coming from this supposedly abandoned shrine.

We're not really sure how to approach this thing. There is a door in the plywood box, just inside the gate through the old shrine fence, but it seems a little reckless just to walk right up and open it. Sempai sends Sai to circle the building, but he doesn't find anything noteworthy. No other doors. Not even a window.

We still don't feel comfortable using the door. Well, Naruto is all for charging straight in, but nobody is inclined to listen. Instead, after going through the opening in the outer fence, we slip into the narrow space between the fence and the wall of the building. We squeeze along until we're close to the corner and relatively out of sight, we hope. Next comes a bit of reconnoitering on my part. I fuse with the plywood—not my favorite thing to do, since plywood could more properly be called butchered wood—and take a peek inside. All I see is the inner shrine fence and a line of power generators. I can hear voices, though, and the sound of movement from behind the fence. I pull back and report.

"There's definitely someone in there, but if we go through the wall here, we'll be blocked from view."

"Good, Ten… Yamato." Sempai catches himself and fixes his error under the influence of my glare. "Let's do it, then."

I focus again on the wall, and this time, instead of fusing with it, I open a hole large enough to walk through. Well, almost. It's not quite tall enough to accommodate Sempai's hair, but that's his fault, not mine. Once we're all through, I close the hole back up again. It wouldn't do to have someone find it and become alerted to the presence of intruders.

Sempai has crossed to the inner fence, and is peering through a gap in the boards. Naruto comes up beside his and does the same. He makes a sudden move, as if to spring right over the top, but Sempai clamps a hand hastily on his shoulder and turns to him with a finger on his lips. Or where his lips are supposed to be. Naruto doesn't look happy about it, but he settles down. Curious, and a little alarmed, I take my place on Naruto's other side, and take a look for myself.

It's truly an odd sight. There are the shrine buildings, the _actual_ shrine buildings, completely enclosed in this plywood box. And the entire area between the shrine and the inner fence is filled with row upon row of people. There must be over a hundred, just kneeling there on the pebble covered ground. That's got to be extremely uncomfortable, but not one of them so much as twitches. They're all completely still, and completely silent. I'm thinking it has something to do with the IVs they're all hooked up to, and the metal caps studded with forests of wires that each one is sporting on his or her head. The wires and IV lines are bundled together into cables that run down the ranks of kneeling people, and feed into a bank of machines lining one side of the inner fence.

Along this bank of machines, three people in white coats move back and forth, apparently making adjustments. One of them is Kabuto. Of course. Who else would turn a Shinto Shine into a laboratory for some sort of monstrous human experiment. Well, other than Orochimaru himself.

One of the two people that I don't recognize looks up from a screen he's been studying. "Everything's ready for the final phase. Shall we proceed, Kabuto-san?"

"Yes." Kabuto turns so that I can see his face. He's looking rather grumpy. "We're already delayed, thanks to that dratted storm. I want this done as soon as possible. Orochimaru-sama is waiting to hear the results."

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura whispers. "Shouldn't we stop them before they do… um… whatever it is they're planning to do? It can't be good…"

"Hmmm…" He pauses to mull over the options. "Hold back for now. We don't have enough information. If it starts to look bad, we'll move in, but I'd like to know what's going on, here…"

As sempai speaks, Kabuto leaves the bank of machines, and walks toward the main shrine building at the far end of the courtyard. He climbs the steps to the veranda, and slides open the front doors. Inside, I can see an altar, at the center of which is displayed a large fan.

Kabuto comes back down to the courtyard and turns to face the altar. "I'm going to begin," he says over his shoulder, and then much to my surprise, he kneels and begins a prayer. What is this, an apology for hijacking the shrine? From this self-centered bastard, who respects nothing and no one besides, I suppose, Orochimaru? Apparently not. While Kabuto prays, his assistants are hurrying up and down the machines, turning nobs and pressing buttons. The hum of the machinery grows louder, and then suddenly it is joined by voices of the people kneeling in courtyard. All of them are simultaneously murmuring out the same prayer as Kabuto.

As the chant continues I can feel the tingle of chakra building in the air. The men at the machine adjust a few dials, and both the chanting and the chakra grow stronger. In the shrine building, the altar begins to shake. Suddenly, the fan shoots from its stand and sweeps through the air, sending a great wind surging from its edge. The fan disappears, but the wind remains, howling around and around the interior of the ramshackle structure that's enclosing the shrine complex. The panels of plywood and corrugated steel shake alarmingly as the wind buffets the walls and ceiling. It even finds its way back behind the inner fence, and we all hunker down to keep from being swept off our feet. For a few alarming moments, the wind continues its wild rampage, but finally it condenses into a shrieking coil around the main shrine building. It keeps condensing further and further, actually, until it becomes opaque, a great white streamer.

And then the wind dies down, and the shrieking quiets. The streamer slows, and resolves itself into an enormous, white, weasel-like creature, circling in the air above the main shrine building. Kabuto throws up a hand, and his assistants bustle about the machines. The praying fades to a murmur, and then stops all together. There's near silence as the great beast drifts down and drapes itself over the roof.

Sempai and I exchange glances over Naruto's head. Who would have thought? The superstitious villagers were actually right. This really _does_ have to do with a god.

Said god rests its chin on a forepaw, and stares down at Kabuto. "So. You have returned foolish human. You dare to stand before me after defiling my home in such a way."

"You may call it defiling," Kabuto demurs with his peculiarly annoying blend of pride and obsequiousness, "but it was done to return your power to you, Ooarashi Kami-sama. I have kept my end of the bargain. Now it's time for you to keep yours."

"Ah. My promise to aid the petty plans of your lord. Never fear, I will not go back on my word. I will do whatever is in my power. However little that may be."

Kabuto crosses his arms. "I hadn't thought that modesty was part of your character. Or are you trying to cheat Orochimaru-sama of your full cooperation?"

The god shows his teeth in a feral smile, and lets out a low, reverberating rumble of a laugh. "Of course, a being such as myself has no use for modesty. Unfortunately, I was merely speaking truth. This mush you have been feeding me by way of prayers has given me only just enough power to maintain this form. If I'd known that _this_ was what you had planned when you promised to bring me worshippers in exchange for my services, I would have told you not to waste your time.

Kabuto stiffens visibly. "Ridiculous. Not only do I control the minds of these test subjects so that they can be induced to recite the proper prayer at command, I've also added a compound to the IV solution that enhances their chakra output. That's what you gods use for power, isn't it? Chakra molded into a usable form by the prayer."

The God's grin grows. "You understand nothing. You are a ninja, are you not? Tell me, can any fool with chakra perform a jutsu just by making the correct hand signs?" Kabuto is silent. "The important thing is the will, the intention, of the caster. The hand signs are just a guide. Likewise the prayer. By forcing these mindless drones to say the prayer while releasing chakra, you have certainly succeeded in making something that is vaguely edible, but it is only a pale imitation."

"…I see." Kabuto is silent for a good minute. Clearly, he's having a hard time accepting that his approach wasn't good enough. "Then it seems as if your term of service will have to be delayed until I have made some changes." He takes a step back to leave, but is stopped by a growl from the God.

"Absurd. Let us put a stop to this tomfoolery. It is already clear to me that you cannot give me what I need. I will take no more of these malformed prayers from mindless slaves. What I need is chakra shaped by true belief. Someone like you, who doesn't even realize that he himself cannot thrive without such a thing… How can you ever hope to provide it for me?"

Kabuto seems to be having some trouble keeping his temper. "What are you saying," he says tightly. "Humans don't eat prayers. I hope you haven't gone senile in all your years of sleeping, because if you have, I may have to reconsider your worth to us."

The god throws his head back and erupts into a raucous bout of laughter. "Just as I said. You are an ignorant fool. It is true, humans are mere puffs of air when compared with a being such as myself. You are incapable of efficiently absorbing this strongest form of chakra, and so you are weak; weaker even than I am, thus starved of appropriate food. But you do absorb some of it. You pass it around to one another constantly, and so thrive. You do not call it prayer, of course. Why would anyone pray to being such as your selves? You call it friendship, admiration, respect, love… and when you are starved of this chakra, you weaken, just as I do. You become twisted, wretched creatures. You, yourself, are a prime example of this pathetic state."

Kabuto's fists clench, and his voice is positively frigid as he says, "I don't have time to listen to such nonsense. Go back to sleep, Ooarashi Kami. The next time I call you, I will have what you need, and you will lend your power to Orochimaru-sama."

With this he turns on his heel and starts to walk away, but the God isn't ready to disappear on command. "I warn again; you waste your time here. The prayers of just the seven of you who are still in possession of your wits would be worth more than anything you could ever extract from these drones."

"Enough. You are dissmi…" Kabuto trails off mid word and suddenly stops walking. I can see his eyes narrow. He turns back to the god. "What do you mean 'the seven' of us?"

The God rolls his head slightly to one side. "You, the two fools over there by that metal monstrosity of yours, and the four waiting respectfully outside the inner fence. Really they're the only ones with any manners."

I feel my stomach plummet as Kabuto whips around to look in the direction of our hiding place.

"Well," Sempai says philosophically, "I guess there's no more point in hiding."

"Finally," Naruto growls, and before we can stop him, he launches himself right over the top of the fence.

There's nothing for it but to follow him. We make it over in time to see Naruto and one of his clones hurtling strait at Kabuto, a rasengan building in their hands. Kabuto manages to dodge, and Naruto connects with the ground instead, sending dust and pebbles flying into the air. For a moment I lose sight of Kabuto. When I locate him again, he's standing balanced on top of the fence.

"Naruto," he leers. "I might have known you people would show up eventually. And then there's Kakashi." He turns him eyes on me, and smirks. "Even the experiment is here." Little twit. What's he looking so superior about? When I was an "experiment," he wasn't even born yet. "I should thank you, really," he's saying. "I was beginning to lose interest in this project anyway." He makes a hand sign and jumps down behind the fence as a suspicious sizzling sound emanates from the behind the machines. Naruto moves to follow, but I recognize the sound—exploding tags—and pull him away.

We all manage to get back in time to avoid the worst of the blast, but the assistants who were working at the machines are not so lucky. A glance is enough to tell me that we won't be getting any information out of them. Fortunately, none of the kidnapped "worshipers" were kneeling close enough to have sustained that kind of damage, but the machines seem to have been supporting them somehow. Within moments of the explosion, they begin to collapse, until the neat rows of kneeling acolytes look more like heaped bodies on a battlefield. Sakura immediately goes to the nearest victim and strips off her gloves, but the rest of us have no time even to listen to her prognosis. Before the dust has a chance to settle, there's another explosion.

There's now a great splintered hole in the side of the plywood enclosure. Kabuto climbs half way through and pauses. "Ooarashi Kami," he calls. "It seems there won't be a chance to improve this system after all, so you can give me your service now. Stop these people from following me."

Kabuto disappears, and Naruto wrenches himself out of my grip. In a few bounds, he's across the remains of the fence and out the hole himself. For reasons that I can't fathom, however, the god seems to have actually listened to Kabuto's order. As soon as the tip of Naruto's nose passes through the hole in the plywood, the God rears up from his perch on the roof of his shrine, throws his jaws open wide, and expels an enormous ball of wind chakra. It shreds the whole side—and a good chunk of the roof—off Kabuto's enclosure, and keeps hurtling on after Naruto.

"Damn," Sempai mutters, and he's off in a flash. I've got to hand it to the man. Whatever else he may be, he's fast. But not fast enough to keep pace with the breath of a god. Fortunately, Naruto notices the attack coming, and turns to meet it with one of his own. A clone appears beside him, and he manages to spin an Oodama resengan before the god's wind reaches him. The two attacks seem to cancel out, at least in the area around Naruto. The fringes of the god's attack spin off to either side. I've got to hand it to Naruto, too. He doesn't even stop to blink at the mayhem of splintered timber around him. He just turns right around and takes off after Kabuto again. His single mindedness is impressive, and at the same time worrisome. This is a dangerous mood for him.

The god fires off another attack, but this time Sempai is ready for it. He throws a wall of stone up across its path, and we all join him in its lee.

He doesn't wait for us to speak. "Sakura, Sai, you go after Naruto. Tenzou, you too. Keep him from getting into too much trouble, eh?" He's called me by the wrong name again, but the kids don't notice. They're already gone, hard on Naruto's heels.

I hang back a moment. "Are you sure Sempai? This is a god we're talking about. You can't seriously mean to stay here and take him on alone." Of course he does, but I'm hoping he'll think better of it. My heart begins to beat faster as I wait for his answer. Please, please let him see sense.

"It's a _starved_ god. He said so himself." Sempai smiles calmly at me as the wind chips relentlessly away at his blockade, and I know I've lost. "I can take care of myself, Tenzou. Besides. You're the only one here who can control the kyuubi. I want you with Naruto."

Damn. I don't like leaving him here in this situation, but he's absolutely right. Naruto's already dangerously spun up, and if the cloak starts to form, I'm the only one who can reverse it. And someone has to stay here and deal with the god. I don't like it, but there's really no choice. I give Sempai one last frown (met with a smile, of course) and take off after Naruto and the others.

It's not long before I catch up to Sakura and Sai, but Naruto seems to be maintaining his lead. For a while, we run on in silence, and my thoughts are pulled inevitably back to Sempai.

I can't help but worry after all. Yes. Sempai can take care of himself. Sort of. But then there are all those hospital stays. What is 'taking care of himself,' exactly. Almost dying rather than actually dying? And this may be a starving god, but it's still a _god_. And it's a _wind _god. Sempai may be able to use fire, earth, and water as well, but he is essentially lightning natured, and lightning is weak against wind. Really, the more I think about it, the less I like it…

"Should you be here, Yamato-taicho?"

"What?" The question startles me out of my anxious internal grumblings, and I glance over to find Sai running close at my side. He's looking up at me with his unfathomable black eyes.

The strange thing is, though, that for once I have absolutely no doubt about what he means.

I stare back at him for a moment, and then my mind is made up. "Thank you, Sai," I tell him quickly, and then I'm pushing off hard and flying back in exactly the direction I just came from.


	11. Chapter 11

In the middle of writing this chap, I brilliantly baptized my keyboard in whiskey.

Really, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.

….

The Taste of Life

…

_Kakashi_

….

Well… Looks like this might be it for me.

This wind is wearing my earth barricade down to nothing and, as far as chakra is concerned, I'm running on empty. Only to be expected, I suppose. This is a wind god. Not an opponent I'd pick for myself, given a choice. The best people for this job would have been Naruto and Tenzou, but Naruto is his usual impulsive self, charging off without thinking things through.

That kid… I wonder if he'll grow out of it? Naruto as a responsible adult... it strains the imagination.

And letting him go without Tenzou to keep him under control would have been asking for trouble.

Tenzou, too… to think he swallowed that clap-trap about my being able to handle this on my own…

Not that I expected it to go this badly, myself. I did think I had at least a chance. Well, Raikiri I expected to fail—lightning is weak against wind—but the lack of impact made by the rest of my jutsu was something of an unpleasant surprise: Katon Goukakyuu puffed out like a candle, Suiton Suiryuudan dodged with ease, and so on down the list. No wonder Orochimaru wanted this being under his control. It's a good thing Kabuto's experiment failed. If this is a god weak and on the edge of starvation, then I wouldn't care to fight one in its prime.

Not that I wanted to fight this one, either. In fact, I did my best to settle it peacefully. Why, I very logically pointed out to the god, would it want to follow the orders of a cracked bastard like Kabuto? But apparently, beneath the sharp tongue and cynicism, this god has an overblown sense of duty and honor. "A god does not break his word," he said, and then, "So let us hurry and finish it, this ridiculous battle between two starving fools." Whatever that meant. Anyway, so much for negotiation. Every time I popped my head out to talk after that, the god tried to blow it off with a wind ball.

The only thing that seems to have any effect is my Mangekyou. I managed to suck in a foreleg as he tried to get past me. That gave him pause, at least. He retreated, and his image seemed to waver for a moment, disappearing into the air around him. But then his form solidified again, leg intact. Oddly fuzzy around the edges, though, and possibly a little transparent, especially about the paws. Just my vision getting worse? But, no, the god's image has been growing a little hazier each time it blocks one of my attacks, or makes one of its own.

It's losing its form; running low on power. We're in the same boat. This is an endurance match between me and him, to see who can hold out the longest.

Sadly, endurance has never been one of my strong points. I've had to use my Mangekyou two more times to keep the god from passing me and going after Naruto. The next time I try, it will probably cost me my life.

If I even get the chance to try. The god seems to have decided to finish me off before trying to go after the others. Through a combination of dodging and doton, I've managed to survive the barrage of wind attacks up until now, but this about as far as I can go, I think.

A large section of earth breaks off from the edge of my barrier. It strikes my shoulder and spins away on the wind. I get as low as I can. No point in dying before I have to.

Maa. I would have liked to live a little longer—see the kids grow up, and all that. The Icha-icha Paradise series isn't finished yet, either. But… maybe it's better to die while it's still going? There's nothing worse than the end of a good series…

…And… at least I didn't encourage Tenzou. I'll be able to go knowing that I didn't leave behind that kind of pain for him. As it is, he'll get over it. He must be half fed-up with me by now, anyway.

Right. Tenzou will be able to move-on, now, and find somebody else. I was hoping for that, wasn't I. Somehow, though, this silver lining seems rather tarnished…

The wind finally dies, but so does the remainder of my shelter. As it crumbles, I catch sight of the god stretching its jaws wide in preparation for another blast. Its form is wavering. It's definitely reaching the end of its power.

But it's outlasted me. I don't have the chakra left to put up another wall.

I'm on my feet. I'll try to dodge, but even as I tense to run, I know it's impossible. The attack is too wide, and there's no time. Already, the blast is howling toward me. Instead, I start to activate my mangekyou. One last time.

And suddenly, my view is obstructed by a familiar back.

My brain doesn't quite know how to believe it, but it's _Tenzou_.

This is about the closest I've ever come to a heart attack. Fortunately, I manage to deactivate my mangekyou before I do any damage to him, but it's a close thing. As great wooden beams spring out of the ground and close over our heads in a sturdy half-shell, I work on preventing my heart from hammering its way out of my chest.

"Oi, Tenzou…" I begin shakily, but the rest of the thought refuses to form in my head. I'm not even sure whether I'm happy to see him or not. On the one hand, it's a stay of execution. On the other hand, the fool nearly got himself killed rushing recklessly in like that… just like Obito, damn it. And we're not out of danger yet. What is he _doing_ here?

Tenzou doesn't seem to have been listening to me, anyway. The wind is whistling ferociously by outside, and our shelter is beginning to creak and groan. Tenzou's shoulders are tense. He seems to be straining to maintain the jutsu. Then I catch the sound of a roar above the wind, and a moment later something crashes against our shelter. The timbers buckle, and Tenzou's jaw tightens. There's another blow, and another, and another, and the wood finally gives way. The fierce wind surges in, and both of us are hurled back amidst a jumble of splintered wood.

….

Gradually, I become aware that I'm lying on my back. On the ground. It's lumpy, and long blades of grass tickle my hands. My head is on something relatively cushy, but the throbbing ache at the back of my skull suggests that maybe that wasn't always the case. Otherwise, I seem to be fine, though. There are hands running expertly over my limbs checking for injury, and there are no tell-tale stabs of pain. I open my eyes, and squint up into daylight, waiting for my eyes to adjust. When I can gaze up into the cheerful blue sky without flinching, I turn my head in search for the owner of the hands. It's Tenzou, of course. I don't know why he's fussing over _me_. He looks rather like a porcupine, with all those splinters slicking out of him at odd angles. I look him over minutely, and satisfy myself that there's very little blood. No serious injury. Certainly no injury to anything vital. He's not wearing his vest (I suppose that's what's under my head) and I gather from the integrity of his shirt that none of the splinters managed to get through it.

I suppose I should probably let him know I'm conscious. I make an effort to sit up, and somewhat to my surprise, I find that I can. My head spins a little, but now that the rush of adrenaline is gone, I expected to be paralyzed from over expenditure of chakra. After using mangekyou three-and-half times, not to mention a dozen other techniques, I shouldn't even be able to budge my pinky finger. A wild idea darts into my head. What was that the god was saying about humans sharing chakra through bonds of admiration, friendship and…? I abandon the idea as absurd. I must have just misjudged how much chakra I used.

Tenzou has stopped checking my shin for breaks. He's sitting back on his heels, observing me carefully. "Are you alright, Sempai?" he asks when I look his way.

"Mm. Fine. Bit of a bang on the head, and my ribs feel a bit bruised, but otherwise fine. What happened?"

"Your head hit a rock when you landed. As for the ribs…" He pauses, looking a little embarrassed. "I'm afraid I landed on top of you. Sorry."

"…Ah." I cast around for another topic. "The god? I gather he's not here."

"He seems to have sort of… blown himself out with that last attack. Just disappeared into thin air."

"I see. Good." I eye Tenzou, who is now de-splintering himself. That wild idea was, of course, ridiculous. But there was something behind it; something that's been sort of sticking in my head for quite a while, and I have the feeling that I've exceeded the safe procrastination period on it.

The thing is, I told Tenzou to go support Naruto.

Tenzou has always displayed an almost pathological in ability to disobey my orders. Or even my suggestions.

Yet here he is, and as far as I can see, he doesn't have any hyper-active blonds in tow.

And not only did he disobey an order, he charged into the middle of a very dangerous situation. As it happens, he's fine, but it could have easily gone another way. If he'd been a second slower putting up his shell, the God's attack could have ripped him to shreds. If I'd been a fraction of a second slower deactivating my mangekyou, _I_ could have pinched his head off into another dimension.

Still watching Tenzou closely, I observe in the most neutral tone I can manage, "You could have died, you know."

Tenzou looks up from working a large-ish splinter out of his thigh and meets my eyes squarely. His face is as carefully blank as my voice was, but there's something about his bottomless, unmovable black stare that puts the final nail in the coffin of a policy I've been living by since Obito's death.

"Yes," he says with quiet finality. "I know."

Here's where I have to admit to myself that I've been something of a fool. Tenzou has made up his mind, and he doesn't look like he's going to budge. Whether I like it or not, I'm important to him. At any rate, important enough that he would disregard a pretty important order and risk getting himself killed to save my neck. I suppose that's about as important as something gets to a person. So what exactly have I accomplished by keeping him at arm's length all these years? Clearly I haven't done Tenzou any good. How about myself? I didn't want him to be important to me, either. I'd like to say that I've managed at least that, but well… there's a limit to how deep even_ I_ can burry my head in the sand.

So… what?

Fortunately, I can give myself a pass on that question for the moment. For one thing, there's about a hundred people about twenty meters away who may or may not be dead. I get gingerly to my feet, and after assuring myself that I'm perfectly steady on them, I start walking in that direction. Tenzou follows me. We reach the first body. No signs of consciousness, but I think I catch the slight movement of breathing. Tenzou kneels down and reaches out toward the body, but half way he flinches and snatches back his hand. At first, I think there's something wrong with the body, but then I see Tenzou staring at his palm with an expression of such abject horror that it's almost comical. I lean over to find out what he's looking at. The kanji for "two" stands out clearly against the skin of his hand. As we watch, it morphs into a three.

Without a word Tenzou swivels in the direction Kabuto escaped and springs away like a spooked deer.


End file.
